A very complicated life for a child
by crouchintiger
Summary: Five year old Harry is sent back in time to Hogwarts. His teenage mother helps look after him, unaware that he is her son. Harry's father, James, shows great dislike towards him, but Harry eventually gains the courage to stick up for himself.
1. The Difficulties

**The chapters in this story have gone through a major rewrite as of 2007. The main outline is still here but I have added more description to develop the writing. Hope you enjoy it! **

**I also want to apologise for the lack of updates this last couple of years, thank you for staying with the story. I will definitely finish this story as I have more time to write now.**

**Thanks to all those ****who have taken the time to review this story I appreciate it, especially when there are suggestions of how I can improve my writing skills. I don't mind recieving negative reviews as long as their justified with reasons, so there's no need to hold back if you think I'm rubbish, I won't be offended. **

**The difficulties of living with the Dursley's**

A small black haired boy known as Harry Potter sat watching television with his cousin Dudley. He was currently feeling upset and angry. His eyes flickered every so often to glare at his cousin, who was occupying the larger of the two sofas in the living room. Resentment was coursing through him because he had just been yelled at by Aunt Petunia for being demanding. Harry felt that this had been unfair because he had only politely asked whether he could choose the cartoon Dudley and he could watch for once, rather than Dudley being allowed to choose again. A row had ensued in the kitchen where Harry had had to contend with Dudley's sniggers in her pauses for breath.

Jealously, Harry watched Dudley lean on the edge of the sofa with a look of sated contentment on his face. Reluctantly, he stared at the TV to see what had caught Dudley's attention. A green ninja turtle with a red bandana was fighting a man in a black cloak. A grimace stole over Harry's face, he was sure Dudley was getting new ideas on his next method of causing him pain.

Distracting himself from this undesirable thought, Harry continued to contemplate why Aunt Petunia disliked him so much. He was sure she disliked him because she always gave Dudley anything that he demanded, while ensuring Harry was as miserable as possible. The thought of Dudley increased Harry's resentment as he always had the best toys _and _attention, which Harry thought was unfair because Dudley was a mean bully, who took every chance he got to punch, kick or pinch him. Even when Aunt Petunia saw the marks her son had left on Harry, she still made excuses for his behaviour. It would be Harry's fault for getting in the way of Dudley's outstretched fist, or Harry had been teasing Dudley and deserved it. Uncle Vernon's responses were even worse as he'd show pleasure; he usually exclaimed that all healthy boys engaged in play fighting, and that Harry should learn to defend himself. Harry personally felt that most children wouldn't be able to beat Dudley, although his cousin was only a few months older than himself, he was still twice the size of his small frame. Dudley could probably flatten Harry just by pushing past him in the hall. Harry was adamant that no matter how hard he fought back, he would never conquer Dudley.

The hitting and punching Harry could at least cope with. However, the indifference and dislike that Aunt Petunia and Uncle Vernon treated Harry with made him feel as if there was something wrong with him. Neither of them had ever cuddled him as far as he could remember, and he was definitely sure that no one had ever told him that they loved him. Dudley was constantly showered in affection, which reinforced Harry's view that he was unlovable. Surely he must be a terrible person if Aunt Petunia liked a bully more than him. Supporting his views was the fact that his parents had died in a car crash. When Harry was feeling particularly down he believed that this was a lie. He felt that they had left him with his aunt and uncle because they too had disliked him. Feeling miserable at this thought, Harry gave himself the only comfort available, which was to suck his thumb.

Flinching, and jerking his thumb from out of his mouth in surprise, Harry tensed up. Where as before he had been distracted by his thoughts he was now fully alert. Dudley had gotten off the sofa – obviously bored with the TV – and was now staring maliciously at Harry. Fleetingly, looking at the door to his left, Harry wondered whether he'd get there in time to escape Dudley's clutches. However, before he could make the decision, Dudley had already begun to advance towards him.

Smirking, Dudley asked in an authoritative voice, 'Do you know what a Chinese Burn is?'

Harry shook his head uncertainly. 'N – n – no,' he said, while trying, but failing to keep the fear from showing in his face and voice.

Dudley took the final steps towards where Harry sat. Harry responded by shakily getting to his feet. However, he found himself in no better position than he had been previously. The trouble was, both Dudley and he knew that Aunt Petunia had just shouted at him. If he ran into the kitchen whining that Dudley was going to hurt him, she would be even more annoyed and would do nothing. If he took the last option available to him by running upstairs he was certain he'd outrun Dudley, however, there would be no where to run after he'd got there. Additionally he'd get told off because he was only allowed up there when he wanted to go to the toilet.

Harry whimpered and stared up into his cousin's plump face, he saw no remorse. Would he actually go through with hurting him? Harry immediately knew the answer to his question, _yes_, Dudley would definitely hurt him. His eyes were focused on Harry's and they were mean. The fact that Dudley was several inches taller than him did not help matters.

'Leave me alone,' said Harry quietly, not really making a proper effort to defend himself because he knew that Dudley would not care how much he begged him to leave him alone, he would still do whatever he wanted anyway.

Dudley stayed stock still, glaring down at Harry with a smirk plastered on his face. Harry couldn't move because he was sandwiched between the sofa and Dudley. He pushed him; he was thinking that maybe Dudley just wanted to scare him.

Dudley immediately retaliated as if this was the moment he had been waiting for. He grabbed Harry's wrist in his hand. 'I'm going to have to hurt you now that you pushed me,' he said delightedly.

Both his cousin's hands clenched his wrist tightly, and as Harry attempted to pull it out of his cousin's grasp the grip tightened painfully.

'No, stop, you're hurting me. I haven't done anything wrong, leave me alone!' yelped Harry desperately.

Yet Dudley hadn't even started. Harry's eyes widened in shock as pain suddenly burst through him. Dudley had started to twist the skin on his arm in the opposite direction and he had a sadistic look as he looked into Harry's eyes, smiling as he did it.

The pain in Harry's arm was immense and however hard he tried to remove Dudley's fingers from around his wrist they just slipped off. Tears of fear and pain pricked his eyes, and Harry felt humiliated that he was allowing Dudley to taunt him again. He did not want to lose! Renewing his struggle Harry kicked at Dudley's shins while pulling in the opposite direction, hoping to surprise Dudley into letting him go.

Dudley's eyes registered surprise, but his grip still held firm. He responded by tightening his grip to make Harry stop kicking him, which he was rewarded with a second later.

A sob escaped Harry's mouth even though he had been desperate for it not to. Then a tear soon followed. He looked down hopelessly to see his arm turning bright red from the friction and he made one last effort to save himself before he completely dissolved into tears. In desperation, he bent down and bit Dudley on the fingers. The result was immediate, Dudley yelped and then let go. Harry was then able to clasp his red and swollen arm which was throbbing painfully. Only now did he allow himself to wail in pain, hoping his aunt would come and protect him from her son coming back to hurt him.

Eyes widening in fear of punishment, Dudley looked down at his own fingers, and then let out a yowl that was louder than his cousin's in order to ensure his mother knew he was the true victim of the fray.

The door to the sitting room immediately banged open to the screams of the two children. Petunia Dursley glanced around the room quickly to gather the source of the commotion. She then hurried over to her son, fear evident in her eyes.

'What is it popkin?' she said her voice registering panic. 'What's the matter?' she repeated when she finally got in front of him and bent down to look into his face.

The child sniffled several times before answering, 'H – he bit m – my fing – gers,' he said between sobs of emotion, but he managed to hold them up and point to Harry.

Petunia's face registered relief as she heard her son's explanation. She looked over at her small nephew who was still sobbing quietly and threw him a sneer. However she immediately turned her attention back to her son in order to provide him with sympathy.

'Oh Diddy, how _awful!' _she exclaimed as she gently took his hand in her own to have a look, she bent down and kissed them. 'We must go and put a plaster on them, and then it will be all better.' She carried on looking at him to fathom out whether he was really okay. She then turned to sort out her nephew.

'You nasty little boy,' she directed at Harry hatefully. 'How dare you bite Dudley!' she finished, her voice rising to a screech.

Harry shook his head adamantly between tears. 'N – n – no.' And he pushed his arm out for her to see the damage her son had done to him. However his attempts at defending his actions were ignored. Petunia was already taking her son's hand and leading him out of the room without a glance in the direction of her nephew, who was still crying and holding his arm protectively.

Only a small amount of surprise was acknowledged by Harry, his aunt hadn't paid any attention to him at all. This was not entirely unusual for him, but he still would have thought that she would have made his arm better for him. It burned painfully.

Harry was soon shocked out of his misery when the door opened again. His aunt had come back. Perhaps she cared after all, and was now coming to sort him out, take his pain away. He turned towards her hopefully, tears still streaming down his face.

Yet Harry's hope was futile, his aunt walked past without acknowledging him. She bent slightly to collect her son's soft ninja turtle that he had left on the sofa, and then went back to the door to leave the room.

The thought of being comforted was fading before his eyes as he saw Aunt Petunia opening the door and Harry didn't want her to leave, so he took immediate action. He rushed over to her and clung onto her skirt. She instantly turned round to see what was pulling at her and met Harry's eyes. Unsympathetically, she gave her nephew a small push to show that she didn't want anything to do with him. However, Harry ignored her stiffness towards him and buried his wet face into her skirt circling his arms around her legs in an attempt for a cuddle.

His actions were rewarded with a tut and he was pushed roughly away. He stared questioningly up into her eyes and more sobs escaped his lips. One final attempt was made to engage her and he raised his arm for her to see the redness, but she turned and left the room to leave him to cry alone.

Feeling rejected, Harry did the only thing he could do, which was to clamber up onto the sofa and push his thumb into his mouth, cradling his arm until he fell asleep.

An hour had passed since Harry's altercation with his cousin and he had just been called in for dinner. As he took his place at the kitchen table he noticed Aunt Petunia, who sat directly across from him, was deliberately avoiding his eyes, obviously still furious with him for his assault on her son. Averting his eyes guiltily, Harry stared at Dudley who sat next to his mother. Careful to ensure his parents were looking the other way Dudley wagged his tongue and crossed his eyes. Keeping his face expressionless Harry stared down at his plate of meat and vegetables.

The meal was going pleasantly for the Dursley's, Uncle Vernon enquired about what his wife and son had been doing all day and exclaimed happily that Dudley was getting big and would soon be the tallest in the class. There was just one individual at the table who was totally ignored and that was Harry. He didn't mind too much because this was how it always was, however, tonight he was particularly afraid. Aunt Petunia had not told Uncle Vernon about him biting her son's fingers. She threw him the odd sneer every so often, obviously enjoying making him wait. Like him she knew that Uncle Vernon would eventually get round to him and she could tell him then, meanwhile she was enjoying making Harry scared.

Harry tried to take his mind off things by attempting to cut his tough steak. The job was not helped by the fact he could only just see over the table, the Dursley's not having bothered to buy him a booster seat. Normally, when he had difficulties like this he would feel frustrated, but today he didn't care, he was not particularly hungry, fear was consuming him, he knew that he would be shouted at and the waiting was making him more nervous.

'And what about the boy Petunia, how has he been today?' boomed Uncle Vernon with a sneer across the table at her, he was acting like Harry wasn't even there.

The sound of his uncle asking about him had made Harry jump, his knife slipping off his meat and shooting onto his plate making peas jump roll onto the table. This was the moment that he was going to be yelled at. He waited with bated breath, no longer bothering to cut his meat just seating still, waiting for his aunt to give him away.

Petunia sniffed before she answered her husband, she had seen the peas shoot across the table, but for once she chose to ignore it. She drew a deep breath, '_He_,' she said jerking her head in his direction. 'Has decided that our hospitality isn't good enough, that_ he_ should get to choose what Dudley should watch on TV. And not only that...' said Petunia making a long pause to draw tension, '_he_ has bit Dudley today... his fingers,' she said pointing at her sons plastered hand.

Harry gulped anxiously and licked his dry lips. He could sense Uncle Vernon working himself up into a temper and the way Aunt Petunia had made him out did make him sound like a bad person, he couldn't blame Uncle Vernon for being mad. If he stood up for himself, perhaps tell Uncle Vernon what had really happened he wouldn't be so angry. After all he was always saying that he should stick up for himself, shouldn't he be proud that he had fought Dudley off?

The chair beside Harry scraped as it was pushed back so that his uncle could turn round to see him properly. Harry did not turn towards him, preferring to stare at the lump of brown meat on his plate, his knife and fork still in either hand pointing towards the ceiling.

'How dare you. How – bloody – dare – you!' yelled Uncle Vernon, his face turning an angry red as he glowered down at his nephew who was shaking, making his knife and fork rattle against the side of his plate.

'We took you in against our better judgement and you repay us by assaulting our son. We look after you, we give you clothes...' his uncle trailed off feeling himself getting into a rage.

Harry bowed his head down to look at his lap. He wanted to tell Uncle Vernon what had really happened, but he did not feel brave enough, he was just a wimp like his uncle always said he was. He stared ruefully down at his swollen arm but he could not find his voice and tell his uncle what had really happened, he wasn't sure he'd believe him anyway, he'd call him a liar.

'You can't even give me the courtesy of looking at me,' bellowed Uncle Vernon deciding that he still wasn't finished.

It was enough to shock Harry into looking up into his fuming face. 'S—sorry,' he stuttered fearfully, his eyes wide and scared, blinking back tears.

Uncle Vernon turned away from him in disgust. 'I think we should put him in a children's home,' he threatened looking back down at his nephew an ugly sneer on his face. 'They'll soon show you not to bite people, you'll get picked on by the bigger children too.' He said nastily.

Aunt Petunia stiffened, 'No Vernon, you remember what we talked about before, he has to stay.' She said regretfully.

Her husband looked at her displeased at her admonishing him in front of Harry. 'Well we have to do something with _him_, he has to learn that this kind of behaviour must not be tolerated. I think we should get rid of him once and for all.'

Harry continued to stare down at his lap, his uncle had said this plenty of times before, but he was unsure whether like those times he really meant it. It might be just to scare him and show that he was the one in control, either way he did not know and he would just have to wait and see.

Getting into his stride Uncle Vernon stood up to tower over him, he grabbed Harry's sleeve, 'You know what?' he growled, 'I think you should have a look to see what its like outside at night, then you'll be thankful for what you aunt and _I _provide you with. Come with me,' and he began to prise Harry away from his seat. Harry grabbed a hold of the bottom of his chair in order to remain sitting on it, but his uncle was intent on pulling him away and he lifted him up in the air and slammed his feet back onto the floor intending to drag him into the hall.

Aunt Petunia had also got up from her seat but unlike her husband she did not seem to want to throw Harry out. 'Vernon!' interrupted aunt Petunia staring up at him. 'Leave it!' And to add insult to her interruption she placed a firm hand on her husband's upper arm as if to push him into his seat.

Vernon glared at her while evidently a war raged inside his head. It was not usual for Uncle Vernon to give up so easily, but with one last withering look in Harry's direction he answered her.

'I wasn't really going to chuck him out' he said stiffly just show him, but evidently I don't have my wife's support.' He threw Harry's arm from him and stomped from the room, slamming the door behind him.

Petunia stared anxiously after her husband for a few seconds, but then proceeded to clear the dishes away from the table. She dumped them angrily into the sink and turned to face the table. Her eyes immediately rested on her nephew who was still staring at the door in shock, he had only just escaped punishment. His heart was beating furiously in his chest and he felt like he wanted to cry.

'Get out!'

Startled, Harry turned to find an empty table and his aunt towering above him. Her face was contorted with rage and she wasted no time in placing a vice like grip, upon his upper arm in order to pull him away from his seat. Harry winced, but didn't cry out. She was obviously angry at him for ruining once again what was probably going to have been a perfectly good evening.

'Get to your cupboard.'

The kitchen door was opened and Harry obediently walked out into the hall. As soon as his aunt had released her grip on his arm, the door was slammed behind him and he was left alone in the hall. He stared at the door which was situated under the stairs and he was not soothed. This cupboard was his bedroom and he hated it. It was dark and small. Yet he knew he couldn't put off going to bed, Aunt Petunia and Uncle Vernon were mad at him and so the best thing for him to do was hide out in his cupboard. All the same, it did not fill him with relief that he would be able to get away from his relatives.

Pulling the door open with a pop, Harry walked inside and closed the door behind him, he was immediately cast in darkness, the thing that he hated. He had learnt that if he waited several minutes then his eyes would get used to the dark and he would be able to see the outline of objects and so this was what he did. When Harry's eyes had gotten used to the dark he could see the outline of a thin mattress which was his bed, other than this the 'room' had hardly any other objects. The most noticeable thing about it apart from being a cupboard was that it lacked the usual colourful objects that adorned children's bedrooms.

Cringing, at the darkness, Harry quickly grabbed his pyjamas and pulled them on. He got under his covers and squeezed his eyes shut, this made him feel better because at least he wouldn't see any monsters if they were hiding in the dark. Before he drifted off to sleep, he hoped fitfully that his aunt and uncle would forgive him enough to wish him happy birthday in the morning. After all he would be five, and everyone knew that that was very old. He really hoped uncle Vernon didn't really want to chuck him out, it was an old tactic he used but he said it so often Harry knew he wanted to do it for real, he just didn't know whether he really would do it.


	2. Never Talk to Strangers

**Never Talk to Strangers **

Morning had arrived, and although Harry's cupboard shed little light to help wake him up, he was wide awake. He was keen, as usual, to escape his dark and uninviting cupboard as soon as possible. However, he first had to change into a pair of oversized jeans and a large red T-shirt, which had both been Dudley's at one stage. He was wary of entering the kitchen in his pyjamas because Aunt Petunia and Uncle Vernon could not stand him eating breakfast with them on.

Despite having to ensure he stayed within the house rules, Harry was feeling happier than he usually did. This was because today was his fifth birthday. He was hoping that perhaps this year, his aunt and uncle might have bought him a birthday cake, one like Dudley had a couple of months ago for his fifth birthday. There would be five candles and a picture of a cartoon. He didn't mind what the cake had on it, as long as he had a birthday cake he would be happy.

The thought of the Dursley's being nice to him, brought Dudley into Harry's mind. Dudley always got everything he wanted because Aunt Petunia and Uncle Vernon loved him. If they bought Harry a birthday cake then that would mean they loved him too. He knew that he would not get all the things Dudley had had on his birthday, the presents, the food and games. But this was one part of Dudley's birthday that Harry did not mind having at his, he wouldn't have anyone to invite for one thing!

The hope that he would have a good birthday this year soon fell from Harry's face to be replaced with a frown. The memory of the previous night had flooded his mind, and it drove out the chance that he was going to get a birthday cake. He looked down at his arm to see a faint bruising on the underside where the tips of Dudley's fingers had held him tightly. He was wondering whether Dudley had a bigger cut on his finger, he hoped he didn't because this would make Aunt Petunia even worse.

The Dursley's were most probably still angry with him, he thought anxiously. Harry hung his head dismally, but as he did so his head suddenly snapped up and he became alert. It was dawning on him that the Dursley's might have locked the cupboard door again. Taking a deep breath, Harry looked at the door anxiously. He hated being shut in the dark, and if the Dursley's had locked the door he would have to stay here for the whole day! Every instinct was telling him to push the door open, but the thought that it might be locked made Harry not even want to dare to hope that it was unlocked.

Several seconds passed while Harry sat tensed on his mattress. What would he do if it was locked? Would he stay silent or bang on the door to be let out? Gathering his courage, Harry stood up; he took a deep breath while walking the few steps towards the door. Placing his palms on the door, he gave it a strong push making it pop open.

Relief flooded through Harry, he would not be spending his birthday in a cupboard. However, Harry's anxiety was not abated completely; he still had to contend with the Dursley's. Once they realised that he was out of his cupboard they might decide to put him back in it.

Checking that there was no movement coming down the stairs by staring through the banister, Harry tiptoed to the kitchen door. Placing his ear at the key hole, he listened for voices. There were none. Grinning, Harry pushed the door open to reveal the kitchen flooded in sunlight. However, this bright sight was disregarded by Harry as his eyes fell on an unwelcome figure sitting at the kitchen table.

Aunt Petunia had looked up as soon as the kitchen door had swung open. All hopes of a 'Happy Birthday' were forgotten as soon as Harry looked into his aunt's face, she did not look happy to see him. Harry's shoulders slumped into a cowering position, already showing he was going to submit to any punishment she had in mind. Was she going to yell at him?

Yet, Aunt Petunia did not yell at her nephew or push him back into his cupboard. Instead she stood up, leaving her half eaten toast on the table, and walked over to the kitchen door. She turned the key in the lock and then turned round to face Harry. Without a word or giving him eye contact, she grabbed hold of the sleeve of his T-shirt and pulled him towards the door. Sharply pulling the door open, Harry's aunt roughly pushed him onto the garden step and slammed the door in his face.

Harry blinked at the closed door – which was inches from his nose – for several seconds in surprise. He had not expected the silent treatment. Although it did not feel very nice to be ignored, Harry reasoned that at least he was not being shouted at.

Eventually coming to his senses, Harry paid attention to his surroundings for the first time. To an adults eyes they would have seen neatly mown grass and immaculate flower beds, but all that registered for Harry was boredom. In his swift search of the garden Harry's eyes automatically fell on the solitary bench. Feeling that there was nothing better that he could do, Harry walked over to it and sat down. Mulishly, he looked at the ground and at the kitchen window, he swung his legs. Would it be possible to look for one of Dudley's discarded toys and play with it? Would Aunt Petunia be looking out the window? He very much doubted that she would be watching him, he thought pensively looking at the window. She'd be more interested in making Uncle Vernon and Dudley's breakfast, ready for as soon as they woke up.

Coming to a decision, Harry got up; it was his birthday he deserved to play with something. Yet there was still a small worry at the back of Harry's mind saying he was going to get in trouble, but he just wanted to have a good day and he would only play with whatever he found for five minutes, so he decided to ignore his conscience. It was unusual for him to be in such a situation where he could play with one of Dudley's toys without him knowing about it, and he should take the opportunity while it lasted.

Searching carefully, Harry eventually found a discarded football under a hedge, which served to hide the street behind it. Bending down to collect it, Harry found he had to crawl under the hedge as the ball had rolled right to the back. Reappearing, Harry looked down at his prize, he had received a few scratches and had dirtied his hands and clothes, but it had been worth it.

Looking behind him, Harry saw that there was no kitchen window which Aunt Petunia could look out from this side of the house. If she wanted to check up on him she would have to open the garden door and walk round to this side of the house to see what he was doing. He could easily hide the ball in that time. Grinning at his plan, Harry dropped the ball intending to kick it.

'Harry,' called a harsh voice.

Shocked, Harry's eyes widened and his head snapped round. He had heard his name being called from behind the tall hedge. Still stationary, Harry swiftly searched the gaps between branches in the hedge, but he couldn't hear or see anything. Shock was replaced by a frown creasing his delicate features, perhaps he had imagined it. Ignoring the prickly sensation he had felt, Harry began to turn to the ball, but was interrupted by the voice once again which was louder and harsher this time.

'Harry.'

Deciding to search more closely this time, Harry walked over to the tall narrow black gate beside the hedge and cautiously peered out to see if anyone was hiding… there wasn't. He had definitely heard his name that time! Worry suddenly overtook Harry's desire to play with the ball, he should knock on the kitchen door and tell Aunt Petunia that a stranger was watching him. However, before he could do more than turn round, a hand grabbed his shoulder, which jerked him away from where he was attempting to walk, and closer to the black gate.

Staring up above him, Harry was met with a dark cold stare; it was a tall, dark haired man. His shadow fell over Harry. The man was dressed in all black, and his black hair hung around his face so that it was hard for Harry to see the man's expression at first.

'Hello Harry Potter,' said the man in a pleasant voice that sounded forced, he was trying to look welcoming, but made himself look even more cold and unpleasant. The smile was stretched forcefully on his face and looked more like a grimace.

Fear consumed Harry, and he stared up at the man transfixed, he was pale and sickly looking. He did not respond to the strangers greeting. He wasn't meant to talk to strangers, he thought desperately. Glancing around the empty garden for help that was not going to come, Harry was forced to look back at the man. The man's eyes were empty of emotion; Harry's own immediately hit the ground to avoid any eye contact. He did not want to look at the man...he was scary. His eyes instead settled on a silver coat that the stranger was holding.

'It's your birthday isn't it Harry?' said the man, ignoring the fact that the child was obviously scared of him.

Harry stayed stock still, looking back at the man with wide green eyes; he wasn't sure whether he should answer. He wasn't supposed to talk to strangers, he repeated to himself; his teacher had told him that, the best thing he could do was to stay quiet.

'I can grant you a birthday wish if you want Harry. You know why?'

Perhaps if he yelled, Aunt Petunia or Uncle Vernon would come thought Harry desperately, but he was petrified and couldn't move let alone scream. He was breathing shallowly, his small chest moving in and out quickly, all he could manage was to give a sharp shake of his head, while his lips quivered.

The man smirked at his fright. Revealing crooked, yellowed teeth, he stated, 'I'm a wizard!'

Even in his terror, Harry only had to blink several times before he realised that what the man had said, had been what he had heard. A wizard, they didn't actually exist, did they? Despite himself, Harry found that he was staring quizzically at the man who stood towering over him. Harry had only seen wizards in films or books, but he was sure that they were just made up stories, they weren't real were they? Then suddenly it hit him, this was all a game, this was part of his surprise birthday party that Aunt Petunia had booked for him. Wizards came to birthday parties! Thought Harry, relief flooded through him allowing his body to relax. He had been wrong, this man wasn't going to hurt him. But then he looked back up into the man's stiff face, there still wasn't something quite right, the man's eyes were still cold and staring. And he was _still_ grasping his arm painfully.

'You don't believe me right?' sneered the man, bringing Harry back to reality.

Still holding a firm grip on Harry, the man carefully put the silver coat on… he had disappeared. Yet Harry could still feel him holding his shoulder.

'You believe me now?' said a voice.

Amazed, Harry gave a reluctant smile, if this man had really wanted to hurt him then he would have done it straight away, he was a children's entertainer!

However, when Harry's eyes met the man's once more as he removed the cloak, he saw cold dark ones staring back and a rigid face, all the friendliness had gone. Harry felt his smile turn towards a grimace, his heart began to beat rapidly, and he couldn't breathe for the restriction in his chest, every inch of his body was filling with dread. What was going to happen?

'Let me go!' he screamed, finally working up the courage to struggle in attempt to loosen the man's grip on his shoulder, it was starting to go numb. It did not work. Desperately, Harry hit out at the man with his free arm, and tried to kick him through the gaps in the gate.

'So you don't want me to grant your birthday wish then?' said the man in a deadly calm, but menacing voice.

The man was loosing patience, and he tightened his grip on Harry's shoulder making him wince in pain.

Harry stood petrified as the man took out of his cloak a long wooden stick. He muttered a few well chosen words and gave the wand a flick. Harry felt a sudden jerk around his navel as his body was lifted from the ground. Frightened, he reached out towards the man in an attempt to grab onto him, but missed and grabbed a handful of the cloak resting loosely in the stranger's hand, which was pulled away in a fast whirl.

Harry had disappeared completely.

**AN: Well Harry's off to Hogwarts... **


	3. A Strange Place

**A Strange Place**

The spiral of wind enveloping Harry buffeted him from side to side. It was impossible for him to see what was happening as he was spun faster and faster. His vision blurred as all colours ran into each other, it was impossible to make out any objects. It had happened so suddenly that Harry hadn't even had time to fear what was happening to him. Before he could consider where he might be going, the spinning subsided, and he was dropped onto a soft-carpeted floor. Several moments later, after he had recovered from dizziness, Harry still remained sprawled on the floor with his eyes tight shut, and his chest rising rapidly. Attentively, he opened his eyes hoping to see a familiar green lawn; instead he was met with the sight of an unfamiliar room.

Motionless, Harry scanned the room with fear evident in his eyes, he was confused and scared. Tightly clenching his fist, he tried to release the mounting tension constricted in his chest. Instead, he found a thick wad of material preventing his right fingernails from imbedding into his palm. Looking down to see what it was, Harry was immediately reminded of the stranger who had turned invisible only minutes ago. It now seemed he had taken the strangers coat. Without a second thought, Harry scrambled to his feet and wrapped the cloak around himself. Looking down, he couldn't stop the jolt that ran through him at having seen his body disappear.

Feeling slightly calmer, now he was invisible, Harry's eyes resumed their swift search of the room. There were five four-poster beds, which each looked as though they had an occupant tucked safely inside. There was mess cluttered around certain areas of the room, and what appeared to be a permanent lingering smell within the air.

A groan interrupted the heavy snores in the room. Startled, Harry jerked his head in the direction it had come from. The bedclothes were moving in one of the beds, and a mop of untidy black hair could be seen vividly against the red and gold bedspread.

Silently, and keeping his eyes upon the bed, Harry shuffled backwards towards the door. However, before reaching his destination, he stumbled and fell on an assortment of unwashed laundry causing a muffled bump. The boy with untidy black hair shot out of bed, pointing a wooden stick at where Harry lay invisible. The boy looked disconcerted from sleep; however, he was still capable of causing a jet of light to shoot from the end of his stick. Harry yelped and ducked at the same time, allowing the jet of light to shoot over his head.

Scrambling up once again, Harry grabbed the door handle. With a brief struggle to open the door, due to the heavy weight, Harry managed to tug it open and allow a passing draught of wind to wash over him. Before looking into what he would find, Harry looked back to see the older boy staring in momentary shock at the open door, but it was evident that he was regaining his senses and would soon be following him.

Hastily glancing into the passage, Harry darted through the open door, and slammed it behind him. There was a narrow staircase lying in wait for his small footsteps. Unfortunately, Harry had to take the steps at a painfully slow pace, so he wouldn't slip due to the invisibility cloak being twice his size. At mid-way, Harry looked back to see the door being wrenched open as though it were weightless. Quickening his speed, Harry reached the second door, and without a second to spare heaved it open.

The boy with the messy black hair reached the door just as Harry's body brushed against it to disappear into the room beyond. Standing stationary in the doorframe with his wand pointing ahead of himself, the boy glared around the common room, while he attracted startled stares from nearby groups of students.

'Hey did you see –' the boy abruptly stopped, letting his right arm fall, as he noticed the odd stares he was attracting. Dropping his features into a more neutral expression, rather than a glare, he looked down at his clothing self-consciously. Taking a deep breath to help cope with his embarrassment, he retreated behind the door as a creeping red flush consumed his pale complexion.

Gasping for breath, Harry had found a secluded sitting area which circled a fireplace. Here, he was able to calm the fear of nearly being caught by the boy, and to examine the strange surroundings he was now in. The room had a high ceiling with several open staircases leading to various doors that lead to the top. However, most interestingly and frighteningly was the variety of people in the room, most of who were sitting in areas identical to where he himself sat. Everyone seemed to be wearing the same long dress like garment, which lead to Harry's conclusion that he was in some kind of school.

The presence of other people made Harry feel nervous, and he wanted, as soon as he knew the way, to escape. Nevertheless, thoughts of how Aunt Petunia and Uncle Vernon would react when they realised he had not stayed in the garden, overwhelmed him. They would be furious with him. He wasn't sure which option was scarier, staying here, where jets of light were shot at him, or shut up in a dark cupboard. Reasoning with himself, Harry decided that at least he was invisible and no one would be able to see him. He would have to make sure that he didn't make any more noise though, because he'd have other people like that boy chasing him. The thought of the danger he faced made Harry more anxious to escape the room, and he turned in all directions to see a way out.

A bright glimmer of shiny red hair caught Harry's eye in his search for an escape. The girl walked determinedly towards the wall directly ahead, she reached out to the stone wall and pushed to reveal a hole, which she stepped through and disappeared. Hope suddenly filled Harry; it looked as though there was a way out. Intrigued and slightly apprehensive, he stood up and walked towards the position he had seen the girl disappear. Curiosity made him graze his hand over the wall, but immediately he jumped away in surprise. Instead of the wall being hard and cold, it was soft. Confused, Harry stood staring at the wall hesitantly, he was wondering whether he should explore further. Nevertheless, he gathered his courage and once again reached up, this time he pushed the canvas, which rose at his touch. Finding it hard to suppress a giggle at this strange occurrence, he laughed, before poking his head out of the hole, oblivious to the people in the room behind him.

Having leant out of the hole, Harry was greeted with a long, narrow and empty corridor, which stretched out in both directions. Sensing it was safe, Harry clambered through the hole to stand in the corridor. Anxiety still consumed him; however, he was starting to feel calmer now that there didn't seem to be anyone around. Despite this, Harry still didn't know what to do or where to go.

Surveying his surroundings closely, Harry eventually turned and let out an audible gasp. Instead of finding himself facing the hole or blank wall, he saw that it had been replaced by a painting, which he now witnessed a rather large lady moving inside of it. On impulse Harry poked the painting, feeling confused at how it could move. Unexpectedly, the woman screamed a long unbroken syllable, which reverberated through the corridor. Harry's eyes widened in horror, and he clamped his hands over his ears in an attempt to shut the awful noise out, and began to run. However, as he reached the far end of the corridor, he tripped and fell.

Sprawled on the floor and gasping for breath, Harry found himself cast in shadow. Looking up, he was met with a smiling old man. He wore a dress like the other people, only his was bright blue – rather than black – to match his twinkling blue eyes. A silver beard ran the length of the man's body down to his waist, and he appeared to wear glasses the shape of half moons.

Harry sniffed and scrunched his eyes up in order to prevent the tears from falling, failing miserably, he started to howl. The stranger bent down and pulled the cloak from him. Harry began to scream.

Unperturbed by the child's screaming; Professor Dumbledore lifted the small boy to his feet. Unable to prevent the curiosity showing on his face, Professor Dumbledore bent down at a suitable height to look into the child's face. Raising his voice slightly, but still keeping his gentle tones, he spoke.

'Hello! My name is Professor Dumbledore. What's your name?'

Hearing the Professor's gentle tone quietened Harry to a sob, yet he still did not speak, he was watching the man with hostile eyes. After a few more failed attempts at communication, Professor Dumbledore eventually took Harry's hand and led him through a maze of corridors, where they eventually came to a stone gargoyle. Professor Dumbledore halted to bend down.

'Would you like to come up to my office?' he said.

Harry was still snivelling from fear. Was this man being genuinely kind or was he trying to lull him into a false sense of security? He knew for definite that there was going to be punishment when the man told Aunt Petunia that he had left the garden. Yet this did not mean that the man would be the one to shout at him, did it? Knowing there was nothing he could do, but wait to see what happened; Harry gave Dumbledore a hesitant nod. Professor Dumbledore, who had waited patiently for Harry's response, gave him a reassuring smile.

'Tooty Frooties,' said the old man, directly to the stone gargoyle, while at the same time standing up.

Unexpectedly the gargoyle leapt aside in order to let them pass, making Harry jump in fright. Professor Dumbledore had to gently tug Harry's arm to make him follow as Harry regarded the gargoyle with dislike. His eyes still remained uncertainly on the statue while passing.

Harry's wariness of the path to Professor Dumbledore's office increased as he was led to a moving staircase, which he obediently stepped on. Preoccupied with staring behind him at the stairs to see if they were still there, Harry hadn't even time to contemplate the scary things that might be behind the door at the top. Before he had time to even protest, Harry had been led over the threshold into Professor Dumbledore's office.

Harry immediately recognised the room as an office as it had a desk, just like Uncle Vernon's office at work, but here the similarities ended. There were other objects in the room which did not look like they belonged there. There were silvery spindly objects and a series of moving portraits affixed to the wall. One major oddity in the room, which caught Harry's attention, was a bird perched in a corner to the right of him.

Tearing his eyes from the odd interior, Harry found himself being lifted into a chair directly in front of the desk. Dumbledore walked to the other side and sat facing him with another of his calming smiles.

Harry stared back at him shyly, and immediately turned his attention to the moving portraits behind the man. He preferred not to look into the man's eyes because he feared that they would turn angry. To prevent the time at which this would occur, Harry suppressed the urge to survey the strange items in the room. He had a feeling that Dumbledore was a nice man, and would not mind him looking at his things. However, Harry couldn't be sure that Dumbledore would remain nice; he might change if he talked to Aunt Petunia and she told him how bad he was. Harry bit his lip anxiously; he did not want Dumbledore to think he was a horrible person. Additionally, he did not want Dumbledore to tell Aunt Petunia that he had left the garden.

Breaking the silence, Professor Dumbledore spoke. 'So young man, would you like to tell me your name?'

Harry averted his eyes from the portraits to Dumbledore's face and then straight to his shoes. His heart began to thump rapidly against his chest. Was Dumbledore going to be nice or was he trying to find information about him to tell his aunt? Harry gave Dumbledore a fleeting look, and then fixed his eyes back onto his feet. Dumbledore's face still looked kind.

'Harry,' he muttered, still determinedly watching his feet.

Dumbledore's smile widened at his response. 'Hello Harry, it's a pleasure to meet you. I hope I didn't scare you earlier.'

Harry shook his head at his feet, and suddenly the things he had been thinking in his head just burst out. 'Please don't tell Aunt Petunia that I didn't stay in the garden…she'll be so mad.' he pleaded, finally looking into Dumbledore's eyes.

Professor Dumbledore smiled again, 'Surely you want to see your aunt again?'

Harry blinked and resumed staring at his feet. He was unsure whether he should answer the question, if he were to answer, _yes_, that would be a lie, and if he were to answer, _no_, the man might tell his aunt.

Overlooking Harry's unresponsiveness, Professor Dumbledore asked, 'Do you know where you are?' To which Harry responded with a shake of his head. 'It is a castle known as Hogwarts. Its purpose is to teach older children than you about magic.'

'I didn't know that magic existed,' said Harry, curiosity evident in his voice, 'but…'

'Yes?' said Dumbledore encouragingly, seeing that Harry was hesitant to speak.

In a quiet voice he said, 'I think I got here by magic…a strange man I'd never seen before sent me here, and he had evil eyes, and a scary face.'

Professor Dumbledore's face registered confusion, 'How exactly did he send you here?'

'I'm not sure, I think he was a wizard though,' whispered Harry, his eyes straying yet again to the moving portraits, he was wondering whether they would tell anyone and get him into trouble. 'The man had a stick and he said some funny words, and I went poof and landed in a bedroom. He also showed me this long coat…' said Harry holding up the cloak. '…he put it on and disappeared. I – I was very scared.' said Harry biting his lip, but still maintaining eye contact with Dumbledore.

'Well I think you were very brave Harry. Although, I must tell you, that is not a coat but an invisibility cloak. As you have found out it makes the individual wearing it turn invisible. Was the garden you were taken from your aunts, do you live with her?'

'Mmmm,' said Harry vacantly, he had a feeling that Dumbledore may be leading up to telling him off.

'I'm sorry, I'm sure you don't like being asked so many questions, but I want to ensure that you get home safely to your aunt.'

'I don't think she'll mind me going… she doesn't like me very much.'

'I'm sure that is not true Harry,' Dumbledore replied quietly, however, his kind comment was returned with a look of disdain. Looking at the child thoughtfully, he wondered whether the child might have some connection with the wizard world. Why else would a wizard send a muggle child here? A place of safety, the person wouldn't have been aiming to harm the child, he was certain. Finally he posed his next question, 'What is your last name?'

For the first time Harry gave him a wide grin, 'It's Potter, I got it from my mum and dad,' he said evidently pleased that he had at least something to remember them by. However, his face soon took on sadness, 'they died in a car crash when I was a baby…look,' and he lifted up his fringe to show Dumbledore a lightening shaped scar on his forehead.

Professor Dumbledore's features took on surprise; he immediately got out of his chair to bend down in front of Harry. Gently touching the child's face, he tilted the boy's head back slightly, so as to see the scar better in the light. Dumbledore's forehead creased in shock and confusion, he let go of Harry to return to his chair behind his desk. This time he stared at Harry in renewed interest.

'I'm sorry to hear of the death of your parents. Was that scar caused in the car crash?'

Harry nodded his head. 'Uh huh, my aunt said so.'

Professor Dumbledore's face took on further confusion, he was sure that the scar was a curse, and not down to a physical impact. It was strange that there had been no mention of it at the ministry. It looked as though this was a serious assault, even if this had occurred on a muggle child it would be big news. Yet he had heard of nothing like this having occurred in the past five years.

'What are the first names of your parents?'

'Lily and James.'

The Professor's face suddenly turned from confusion to outright alarm, 'What is the year?'

'1986.'

'Oh dear!' acknowledged Dumbledore as his eyes took on a shiny, glassy effect, he was considering the deaths of two of his students. Trying to disregard this information, he closed his eyes and thought of the complications a child from the future might pose to the past.

Meanwhile, Harry stared at him startled, 'Mr..?' he attentively spoke.

Dumbledore opened his eyes to see the small boy looking at him with uncertainty. He placed a wane smile on his face, 'Sorry Harry, I was just thinking. I've realised what has happened, you have somehow been sent into the past. Now before you get worried, I know precisely how to get you back to your present time, it will just take some time. Okay?'

Harry immediately smiled with wide eyed glee. 'I've really travelled into the past? Do you know my parents?'

Dumbledore took some time in forming his response. 'Yes, they are a witch and wizard, but I'm not sure you will be meeting them.'

Harry looked at him hurt, 'Why not?' he said softly.

'I'm sorry, but it's just not possible, but you can stay at Hogwarts until I find a way to send you back home. You'll get to see all different kinds of magic.'

Harry smiled content with the idea that at least he'd get to see some more magic. He looked up to see Dumbledore surveying him thoughtfully, before taking out a quill and piece of parchment from his desk draw. After writing a neat few lines he called, 'Fawkes' and the bird that had been seated quietly in the corner flew over to the desk.

Harry, who had jumped in surprise, was now looking at the bird in awe. The bird took the parchment in its beak as the professor held it out and flew out of the open window.

Professor Dumbledore regarded Harry with amusement; he was watching the bird fly out the window with wide eyed surprise.

'You like my bird Harry? He's a Phoenix, which means he lasts a very long time and is very loyal. I'm sure that when he has delivered my letter, he'll let you stroke him.'

Harry gave Professor Dumbledore a big grin. Yet, he had to wait several minutes in tense excitement before the bird flew back into the room, circling once, and then perching on Professor Dumbledore's desk.

'Harry come round this side of my desk, so you can stroke him.'

Harry got up and walked behind Professor Dumbledore's desk to stand next to him.

'Do you want to sit on my lap and stroke him?' said Professor Dumbledore, noticing that Harry could barely see over the top of the desk.

Harry nodded. The man knelt down to pick him up, carefully he placed Harry on his knee, where he could see Fawkes perfectly. Harry reached out to touch Fawkes, who nipped him appreciatively, which at first put Harry off and he took his hand back. However, Professor Dumbledore gently took Harry's hand in his own palm and guided Harry's hand over the bird's red and gold plumage. Eventually Harry felt confident enough to do it on his own, concentration etched on his face as he did it.

Then he spoke 'Are you going to tell me off now?'

'Why would I do that Harry?' said Professor Dumbledore in surprise.

'Because I went out of the garden when I wasn't supposed to…and I spoke to a stranger.'

'I am not going to tell you off. It wasn't your fault, and I'm sure your aunt will understand that.'

Harry nodded and looked up at Professor Dumbledore with another smile, which was returned. 'Professor Dumbledore are you a wizard?'

'Of coarse Harry, look here's my wand,' and he showed him a long strip of wood, 'I'm sure you'll get one when you're eleven.'

Turning round to look into the man's face, Harry smiled, but then he was distracted. Behind the Professor's head, a peculiar man was sticking his tongue out and making grotesque faces. Giggling, Harry jumped down from Professor Dumbledore's lap to get a better view of what the portrait was doing.

Professor Dumbledore turned to see what had captured the child's attention. He smiled 'Oh very good Fortesque, no wonder you were so popular with the students.'

A grin surfaced on Harry's face again as he turned to Professor Dumbledore, however, a sharp knock at the door suddenly turned Harry serious again. He snapped round to face the door using the Professor's desk to shield him from who ever came through it.


	4. Meeting New People

**Meeting New People**

Professor Dumbledore looked up as a knock on the door signified that someone was waiting to see him, he smiled. 'Come in.'

Resuming his stroking of Fawkes by the side of Professor Dumbledore's desk, Harry looked up to see who had knocked, he shuffled slightly closer to Dumbledore, his head rising just high enough for his eyes to see over the desk.

A girl had entered the room. She was tall, and the most distinguishing feature about her was her green eyes, which sparkled in the light. She had red hair which was long and reached down past her shoulders. She smiled at the two people behind the desk, just able to see a small boy with green eyes staring back at her curiously. The only other thing she could make out, apart from the fact that he was very small, was that he had a mop of untidy hair, which made her smile widen.

'You wanted to see me Professor?'

'Yes Lily, please sit down,' said Professor Dumbledore indicating the seat in front of his desk, 'I have a proposition for you. I wish to ask whether you would like to look after this young man here,' he said, putting his arm around Harry's shoulders comfortingly. Harry had been listening intently, and had gone strangely still, his eyes were flickering between the two people.

It took a few seconds for Lily to consider what her headmaster was asking her. Slightly confused she gave her answer, 'Yes of course...I'd be happy to look after him.'

The Headmaster beamed back at her, 'Thank you Lily, this is much appreciated. I'm sure that you will only have to look after him for a week at the most. His name is Harry, and I believe he is five years old.' He looked down at Harry still smiling, 'Would you like to meet Lily?'

Harry looked into the Professor's eyes, seeking reassurance. Slowly he nodded.

'Then how about Lily taking you up to the Gryffindor common room, where you can get to know each other?'

Another nod confirmed that Harry was okay with this.

Lily and Harry emerged from behind the stone gargoyle that concealed the entrance to the headmaster's office five minutes later. Immediately, Lily took hold of Harry's hand and led him in the direction of the Gryffindor common room. Both walked in silence, while only their shoes made faint sounds on the stone floor. Harry was feeling shy and awkward; he was not used to having to speak with so many strangers, not to mention staying somewhere he had never been before.

The hand that had been held out for Harry to hold onto had made him feel uneasy at first; his aunt had never actually let him hold hers. Although the contact Lily provided soon made him feel reassured and safe in this strange and sometimes scary place. She was not holding him too hard or too soft, indicating the possibility that she liked him. Taking a fleeting look up at Lily, who was staring straight ahead, deep in thought, Harry was further reassured by her kind and friendly face. Her features lacked the stiffness that his aunt so often had on her face when she was in his company, this small piece of information made Harry feel slightly less anxious. To make double sure that he hadn't been mistaken, Harry took another quick glance up at her face, however, he was shocked to find himself staring straight into her eyes, she had caught him!

Lily beamed down at him. 'What beautiful eyes you have, they're even the same colour as mine.' She held his gaze for several seconds, he had grinned at the comment; she felt pleased that he wanted to communicate with her. 'I hope you'll enjoy your stay here, I know you'll miss your family, but I can help you write them a letter if you want me to. And we can have lots of fun and games. I assume you've never been here before, so if you have any questions about the castle I'd be happy to answer them.'

Nodding shyly, Harry opened his mouth, but then immediately closed it. Lily had said he could ask a question, but what if she thought that his questions were stupid? Harry looked up into Lily's face nervously, she had seen him hesitate.

'Go on, what do you want to ask?' encouraged Lily with an enthusiastic nod of her head and flash of her white teeth.

'Ar – are you a – a teacher?' he mumbled going red with the attention she was giving him.

A smile touched Lily's lips, but she did not laugh, she did not want to mock Harry, who was only just gaining the confidence to speak to her. 'No, I'm afraid I'm not a teacher. I am only 16 in my 6th year at Hogwarts, so I still need to be taught myself.'

Harry stared up at her in confusion. 'B – but Professor Dumbledore said that you were a pree – fect,' he said drawing out the unfamiliar word and turning crimson at having challenged her. Harry's aunt and uncle could not stand him asking questions _or _challenging anything they said. Harry waited anxiously for Lily's reaction, he could not see the expression on her face as she had looked ahead to watch where she was walking, but he could see that she was shaking her head. Fearing that he had angered her, Harry started to cower, his shoulders slumped and his lip started to tremble. Things had been going so well too, he had thought for a moment that she might even like him.

'Prefects aren't teach –' Lily abruptly stopped mid-flow having stared back down at Harry, who was determinedly looking at the floor, attempting to disconnect himself from all interaction. 'What's wrong?' she said worriedly, bending down at the same time to look at the young boy's face.

Feeling more bewildered than ever, Harry tensed up. Why was she still being so nice when she should be shouting at him? Harry was confused no one had ever looked at him with concern and it worried him. Was she going to be nice to him and then suddenly – like his aunt and uncle sometimes did – yell at him?

'You've gone all tense. What's the matter? Did I say something that scared you?' said Lily frantically, trying to remember what she had said previously. 'I'm not going to hurt you.' She reassured, as Harry still remained rigid.

'I'm – I'm sorry' he said desperately. 'I didn't mean to question you...honest!'

Surprise caused Lily's eyes to widen; she hadn't even thought anything of Harry questioning her. She smiled faintly at him, feeling slightly nervous of the situation. 'Harry I'm not angry with you. You can question me any time you like, I don't mind.' Standing up Lily held out her hand for Harry to grasp. 'Come on, let me show you the Gryffindor common room, there's lots of comfy chairs that you can sit in.'

They resumed walking, Lily looking down at the top of Harry's head, curiosity evident in her eyes. What kind of family did Harry come from for him to have so much fear instilled in him? Although, she reasoned, he might have reacted like that because she was a stranger. Still, she would make sure she watched what she said in the future.

Harry felt his heart rate slow as he was led into another corridor, which mirrored the ones they had previously walked through. Lily was nice after all, she had not shouted at him, and Harry was considering for the first time that perhaps he would enjoy his stay at Hogwarts. However, this new found relief was dampened as a jolt of horror consumed him. Hastily dropping Lily's hand, Harry rushed to hide behind her.

For the second time, Lily looked down at Harry in shock and saw that his terrified eyes were fixed in region of the ceiling. Looking up, she could see a transparent figure hovering in the air. Staring down again she smiled, 'Its okay,' taking his hand in her palm once again she led him away, while Harry anxiously looked behind him.

'That's The Bloody Baron, he's a ghost,' Lily explained. Seeing that Harry was not evidently soothed by this information she carried on, 'he wouldn't hurt you. Ghosts can't do anything to humans, they're not made of anything solid so they can't touch you.' Then as an afterthought she added, 'although you probably wouldn't want to walk through one, it's very cold.' Harry just stared at her wide eyed. 'There are other ghosts in Hogwarts, and they look a lot friendlier than The Bloody Baron. Nearly Headless Nick is the ghost who represents Gryffindor; I think you'd like him. Look there's the portrait hole just down there, can you see it?'

Harry nodded enthusiastically, he had felt relieved at Lily's explanation about ghosts, but he still wasn't sure he liked the idea of them. The further he was away from The Bloody Baron the better.

'So this is where Gryffindor students live when they aren't in lessons. Gryffindor is one of the four houses in this school,' explained Lily, who received a confused nod from Harry. 'To get inside you have to tell this lady the password, which is Gryffindor rule.' Which she directed at the moving lady, and the portrait hole rose up high into the air.

When Lily had said the password, Harry saw a trace of annoyance flicker over Lily's face for the first time. The thought was driven out of his head as he felt Lily lifting him up over the wall and into the common room. Harry immediately recognised the room; it was the same one he had escaped from that morning. Only this time he noticed that he felt a lot calmer, and sensed that Lily was going to ensure that he was safe. The room was empty, which also helped to sooth his nerves.

'Do all the pictures in the castle move?' Harry questioned as he saw the canvas close the hole to the common room. He was thinking back to the lady who had screamed when he had poked her.

Lily did not immediately answer his question, but instead said, 'Come sit down,' as she herself took an armchair close by. Harry obediently sat down in a large comfy chair opposite Lily.

'Well yes, they do. Do you not come from a wizard family?'

Harry looked at her uncertainly, was the answer yes or no? 'Both.' He could see that his response had confused Lily. 'I live with my aunt who isn't a witch, but my parents are,' he said proudly.

'Oh!' said Lily, wondering why he didn't live with his parents, but feeling it would be rude to ask, she had only just met him. 'Well if you want to know anything regarding magic you can just ask me.'

'Okay...why is no one here?' responded Harry, surprised at his own daring to ask yet another question.

'Lessons are on at the moment, but they will end soon and people will start coming into collect their books for the next one.' Lily's eyes strayed down to Harry's side where he held the invisibility cloak. 'Is that an invisibility cloak?' she questioned, she had seen it as Harry came out of Dumbledore's office – trailing on the floor all the way to the common room – but had not mentioned it. Now Harry was gaining the confidence to talk to her, she felt this was the opportune moment to ask, it was intriguing, and after all invisibility cloaks were rare. Harry gave her a shy smile and nodded. Noticing his absence of an explanation Lily decided not to ask the next question of how he had acquired it, she did not want him to become scared again.

Another question had been working its way through Harry's brain when a loud unwelcome laughter made him jump, forcing the question from his thoughts. Crouching slightly in his chair, and turning at the same time, he saw that the laughter was coming from two boys. The laughter abruptly stopped when they saw Lily, straight faced, sitting in a chair directly ahead of them. Both their smiles turned to guilty grimaces. Harry, had immediately turned away from them, he was feeling sickened, one of the boys looked oddly familiar.

'What are you two doing here? You're meant to be in lesson,' admonished Lily, looking at them with a piercing glare.

'Well, we could ask you the same thing Evans,' said the boy who had messy dark brown hair and glasses. Walking towards Lily he did a double take as he saw Harry; he had not previously noticed him because only the back of Harry's armchair could be seen. A mischievous grin overtook his features, 'I didn't know you had a child. It isn't Sirius's is it?' he joked. 'What is that, five now?'

'Tut tut James, you only have one thing on your mind, its surprising that you're even clever. I'm sorry Lily, but as you can see what he lacks in intelligence he makes up for in stupidity.' His friend James, proceeded to push him out the way.

'Oh ha ha,' replied Lily without enthusiasm, 'I'm looking after Harry, so what are _you_ doing here?'

'Ah! Well…' started the friend of the boy with messy hair, but trailed off when his friend gave him a significant look.

'Whose child is this then Evans? I didn't think Hogwarts was opening a nursery school,' the boy with messy hair said, quickly trying to change the subject.

Lily sighed, 'His name is Harry. Professor Dumbledore asked me to look after him for a little while.'

'What, and you agreed?' said the boy incredulously. 'You'll have to wipe his nose and take him to the toilet. Honestly, children are way too much trouble if you ask me, your reputation as a bright and clever student is just going to _diminish _after this.'

'He can understand what you say,' said Lily her voice rising. Potter could be such a thoughtless idiot.

'I'm not stupid,' said the boy sitting down next to Harry. 'Alright mate?' said the boy addressing Harry, and ruffling his hair at the same time. 'My name is James and he,' said James pointing towards his friend, 'is Sirius.'

The two boys' called James and Sirius smirked at each other when Harry frowned back at them, fear evident in his eyes.

'Come on you guys, leave him alone he's only five,' said Lily. Then looking at the two of them appraisingly she asked, 'You wouldn't mind looking after him for a couple of minutes would you? I need to get my bag from upstairs.' The two boys nodded seriously making Lily smile. 'You'll be nice to him right? It's just that I really need to get my books.' She repeated, indicating she wasn't entirely sure it was a good idea to leave the small boy, but it was only for a couple of minutes! Looking at Harry she smiled kindly, 'I'll only be a little while,' she got up, walking swiftly across the common room to one of the doors. Before opening it, she looked back at the three boys grouped in the chairs. 'Thanks you two.'

Harry looked after her, frowning, he didn't want to be left alone with these boys. The two hadn't been nice to him, and he had seen the mean look on the boy – James – face this morning, he could be really horrible if he wanted to.

Seeing Harry's frown, Sirius sat down on the arm of Harry's chair. 'Aw does little Harry want his mama?' he said putting on a teasing baby voice, and then he gently pushed Harry's shoulder trying not to laugh.

Looking serious, James spoke up. 'Stop it Sirius, you're going to make him cry!'

The two boys looked at each other seriously for a second, and then they both burst out laughing. Feeling humiliated, Harry pursed his lips and creased his forehead glaring at them, meanwhile trying to prevent his bottom lip from wobbling into a cry.

James's laughing stopped as his gaze fell on the cloak at Harry's side. 'Is that an invisibility cloak?' he asked abruptly.

Harry looked down at his hand which clutched the invisibility cloak, with a solemn glance at James he slowly nodded. He was suddenly having flash backs of the events that had occurred that morning, and he could see that James was too.

'Were you in our room this morning?' questioned James his eyes narrowing, all traces of amusement had now vanished from his face. He watched stiffly as Harry adamantly shook head, but looked evidently guilty. 'You were, weren't you?'

Harry shook his head once again, finding it hard to prevent the scared and worried look appearing on his face as James stood up and stepped towards him looking furious. Harry couldn't prevent the sob that escaped his lips; just as Lily emerged from her dormitory, he started to cry.

'I can't believe you two would actually pick on a child!' Lily said horrified as she briskly walked over to where Harry sobbed, and put her arm around him sympathetically. 'I only asked you to watch him for a couple of minutes, you couldn't be nice for that long?' she said, looking at them accusingly.

James threw a vicious glare at Harry, suggesting it had been his fault, and that it was he who had been the innocent one. 'I didn't even do anything; the child is just over emotional.' To which Lily raised a single eyebrow, signifying that she did not believe him. 'Alright! I was only questioning him on his invisibility cloak; he was sneaking around in our room this morning.'

Lily sighed, 'Oh yeah and the rest. I can't believe how immature you are, does it really matter if it was him? It wasn't like he was going to curse you. Maybe it's not the fact that he was in your room that you're picking on him, you just enjoy bullying little children who can't fight back.' James looked at her and reddened slightly, he was about to reply when Lily interrupted him, 'Look will you just go!'

Slightly peeved James and Sirius began to leave for the opposite side of the common room, while Sirius muttered, 'You've blown your chance there mate.' James turned angrily to his friend as if to say something, but words failed him. Instead he stormed off to sit fuming in an armchair.

Lily bent soothingly over Harry to reassure him. She gently rubbed his back and told him that it was okay, and that James and Sirius hadn't really meant what they said, that they just liked to joke and sometimes went too far. Eventually, these kind words calmed Harry and he was able to turn his attention to the students who were beginning to flood into the room, signifying the end of lessons. Curious stares were directed towards him, which had made him feel anxious, but Lily explained that they were just wondering why a child was in the school. Feeling shy from the attention, he sat back in his chair, which concealed him from view as it was so big.

'Lily there you are, where were you? We –' The girl stopped as she noticed Harry sitting beside Lily.

'Aw he's so sweet,' said another girl who had stood next to her friend.

'Why on earth are you looking after a child Lily?' said the first girl rather abruptly.

'Professor Dumbledore wanted me to look after him,' said Lily seriously.

'Ah… right,' replied the girl sitting down looking at Harry curiously.

'Harry these are my two friends, Mary (pointing to the girl standing up who had thought Harry was sweet) and this is Jayne.'

Deciding that Harry couldn't be left on his own while she had Transfiguration, Lily had brought Harry to class with her. Mary and Jayne passed her to take their seats while she walked over to her teacher, Professor McGonagall. Harry trailed after her, looking curiously around the room. To him it looked normal enough, there were no magical objects, just desks, he felt slightly disappointed. Where was the magic?

Professor McGonagall looked up as Lily and Harry approached her desk, she smiled briefly at Harry. 'Yes Lily, I know _all_ about Harry, Professor Dumbledore just told me. He can sit next to you for this lesson. However, Professor Dumbledore and I have considered that it would be more appropriate for Harry to sleep in the boys' dormitories at night rather than in the girls'. Professor Dumbledore recommended the room occupied by Potter, Black, Lupin, Pettigrew and Cooper. His bed and things will be taken up during the day.'

'What?' Lily blurted before she could stop herself, 'You can't leave him with them, they're so… uncaring.'

Professor McGonagall took some time in her response; perhaps she shared her student's views. 'Mr Lupin is a prefect, he is responsible. I'm sure all of the boys will behave sensibly around a young child, it will bring out their more _mature_ side.'

Lily turned away to take her seat, she very much doubted that.

Harry felt himself being led to the second row of tables, Lily pulled a chair out for him to sit on and he clambered up to lean on his knees in order to see over the desk. Lily noticing him do this pointed her wand at his chair, which rose several inches. Harry looked down in surprise, he bounced up and down on the chair, it did not move back down.

'Hey, Lily!' he said in a carrying voice, misunderstanding that it was quiet time and he had to listen to the teacher with the other students. 'The chair doesn't fall back down when I bounce, look,' he said enthusiastically bouncing up and down.

Lily looked at him and smiled. 'Shhhh' she said while pointing to the front where Professor McGonagall stood blinking sternly at him. The teacher had actually stopped talking as her classes attention drifted over to where Harry sat bouncing, giggles interrupted the silence. The lesson soon resumed and Harry got the gist that he was not allowed to talk.

Once the teacher had finally stopped talking, which Harry had been ignoring, he saw that Lily had been given a _real_ mouse. Immediately brightening at the prospect of holding the animal, his small hand swooped to touch it.

After letting Harry stroke the mouse perhaps rather too hard, Lily decided it was time to rescue it. 'Harry I have to transfigure the mouse into a box now.'

Harry looked at her with a wide eyed expression of amusement. 'Really?'

Patiently Harry watched but couldn't contain himself for long. After seeing the first transfiguration, he quickly became bored and put his elbow on the desk in order to lean his head on his palm. 'Will I get one of those sticks?'

'No, children aren't allowed –'

'Lily,' interrupted someone from one of the rows behind Harry and Lily.

'Yes?' replied Lily, turning to see who had called her.

'Can you help me?'

'Okay,' turning back to Harry she stated, 'I'll be back in a minute, don't move.'

Harry swivelled his head to see where she was going, but stopped when his attention wavered to one of the sticks lying absently on the desk behind him. Carefully looking around him to see if anyone was watching, he picked the wand up and turned back to the mouse Lily had left. A mischievous grin reached his lips as he picked the mouse up, holding it in his palm tightly, then he tapped it with the wand. He was careful to mimic the way Lily had waved her wand; he intended to turn the mouse into a box.

The results were even better than Harry had been expecting, instead of seeing the mouse turn into a box it slowly began to get bigger. Harry grinned for a while, but this slowly turned to a grimace as he saw that the mouse was not going to stop growing. It was now becoming too big to hold, dropping it onto the desk, he watched as it became rabbit sized. Slowly edging away, Harry bumped into someone behind him. Turning, he looked up into Lily's teachers face; she towered over him with a deep frown plastered on her face. She reached down and grabbed the wand from between his fingers, and then with her own wand she shrank the mouse to its original size.

'You should never play with wands,' she snapped her face becoming stern and scary.

Staring up at Professor McGonagall with his lip quivering Harry's shoulders slumped.

Taking pity on him, Professor McGonagall bent down. Lifting up Harry's head, she smiled at him. 'Don't worry; you'll get a wand when you're older. By the size of that mouse, I think you'll be a very good wizard.'

Harry smiled at her compliment.

At the end of an eventful day of lessons, Harry had returned with Lily to the Gryffindor common room. They were both seated in armchairs. Harry was looking at a picture book, while Lily did her homework. The picture book was about a little boy wizard who had stolen his fathers wand, but what was particularly interesting for Harry was that the pictures in the story moved, and if he wanted it to, the book would read the story for him.

Hogwarts had been very exciting for Harry; he had quickly come to trust Lily who was kind to him. He soon realised that most other people in the castle were friendly too; they did not want to hurt him. Smiling at this thought he looked up from his book to talk to Lily. However, he stopped; he could see a person he did not want to see walking towards them. Of coarse not everyone had been nice to him and he bit his lip. James, the boy he had met that morning did _not _like him, and Lily had told him earlier that he was going to have to sleep in his room that night. Harry continued to bite his lip as James walked over.

As soon as Lily had looked up at James, he spoke. 'Look I'm really sorry about what happened today. I promise my friends and I won't be horrible to Harry when he sleeps in our dorm, we'll be nice to him… as seen as he's just a child.' He added as after thought.

'Well you better be.'

'Yeah yeah sure,' and in a lower tone James muttered, 'wouldn't want to displease you would I.' obviously showing he still hadn't forgiven her for the slur that morning.

'What was that –' but Lily abruptly stopped as a loud bang echoed throughout the common room, making her and Harry jump. Seeing Harry's eyes widen in alarm, she turned to look behind her. Two boys were facing each other with their wands out; one of the boys' had a nose bleed. Sighing, Lily got up.

'I've got to do my prefect duties,' she stated and walked briskly to the commotion.

Looking anxiously up at James, who was taking a seat across from him, Harry's eyes couldn't help but flicker to Lily's retreating back, he did not want her to leave him with James.

'So Harry,' said James giving him a false smile, 'you better be careful tonight, you might see The Bloody Barron.'

Harry widened his eyes in confusion and fright.

Seeing Harry's confusion, James carried on, 'Well have you seen the ghost with blood on his clothes?' Harry gave him a slow nod, 'That's him. He likes to eat little children…" James gave Harry one last smile, then got up.

Harry looked after James retreating back and grimaced in fright. Hadn't Lily told him that The Bloody Barron couldn't hurt him? But then again she was a nice person, she might lie to make him feel better.


	5. Creeps in the Night

**Creeps in the Night **

The Common Room had grown steadily darker as the night set in. As Harry's normal bed time drew nearer he grew tired. Eventually giving into sleep, he had curled up in his armchair, falling asleep within minutes. His main thought before falling asleep was that if he was asleep downstairs with Lily, then The Bloody Baron would not be able to get him. The longer he stayed downstairs the better, but in reality he was only granted fifteen minutes of safety.

'Look Lily, Harry's fallen asleep,' said Mary.

Turning round to peer into the chair next to her, Lily could see that Harry was sleeping peacefully. She smiled down at him, he looked much smaller curled up tight.

'Do you think we should take him to bed?' questioned Lily. She was unsure at what time Harry was supposed to go to bed. It was only seven o' clock, but she wasn't sure whether letting him go to bed earlier would mean he'd wake up early the next day.

'I don't know? Where are all his things, are they in the boys room?'

'Yes, Professor McGonagall said his things would be taken up to the boys' room during the day... I'd better wake him up and get one of the boys' to take him upstairs to bed,' said Lily coming to a decision.

Getting up, Lily bent over Harry. Gently she nudged his arm while at the same time softly calling out his name. Harry stirred and looked up sleepily.

'Come on Harry, I'll get someone to take you to bed,' said Lily, holding out her hand for Harry to hold. However, what Lily had not anticipated was Harry shaking his head and curling up tighter into a ball, hiding his face under his arms. 'Harry,' she laughed, 'are you trying to hide from me?' She gently tickled him, which received an annoyed grunt.

'Come on, you're not shy of the boys' are you? Their not going to hurt you Harry, they only like to joke around,' said Lily slightly pensive.

Lily's reassurances did not budge Harry, and she had the feeling that she had to result to more drastic tactics. Grasping both of Harry's arms, she lifted him out of his seat making him, reluctantly, uncurl. She then placed him on his feet, while taking his hand at the same time. Lily looked down into his face to see him looking dazed and sleepy, his hair was messier than it had been before he had drifted off to sleep, which made Lily giggle.

'Come on, you'll be just fine. I'll introduce you to the people whose room you'll be sleeping in.'

Harry shook his head, he did not want to meet the boys'; he wanted to stay with Lily. Yet Lily ignored his protest, pulling him over to a group of boys' in a corner of the common room. There were four of them seated together, they had not yet noticed Lily approaching. Harry slouched behind Lily, reluctantly letting her pull him, he was feeling nervous at what the boys' would say to him. As soon as Lily had stopped, Harry hid behind her robes, peering out to look at the strangers from her right side.

'Hello. I've brought Harry over to introduce him to you all before he goes to bed.' Ignoring Harry's obvious attempts at trying to hide, she stepped aside and bent down while he looked determinedly at the floor.

'You've met James and Sirius this morning, but this is Peter,' she pointed to a small plump boy, 'and this is Remus, he's a prefect like me,' said Lily reassuringly.

'Hello Harry,' said Remus.

Harry gave Remus a shy smile, perhaps these boys' weren't so mean after all, which would mean that Lily was telling the truth. Looking into their eyes to fathom out whether he was right, Harry was greeted by curious stares. Alarmed, Harry turned straight back to Lily; he wanted her to take the attention away from him. His wish was immediately granted as Lily guessed that he was feeling self conscious.

'James, please can you take Harry up to your dorm so that he can sleep? He doesn't know where to go so it would be nice of you to take him and show him where everything is.'

James looked back at Lily outraged, 'What? No way…' he paused to look down at his watch, 'it's seven o' clock.'

'Well he's only little, you can't expect him to stay up till twelve can you?' said Lily in a stern voice.

'Yeah...well it's Friday night.'

Yet James saw the determination in Lily's face. His immediate thought was that he didn't want to annoy her. Taking Harry upstairs would make Lily happy and so he relented by standing up.

'Thanks James.' Smiled Lily, she turned back to Harry to survey his response to James. 'I'll see you in the morning Harry.'

To James's dismay, before Lily left, she gave him Harry's hand to hold. James blinked down at the child for several seconds; he wasn't sure whether holding a child's hand suited him.

'Come on.' He muttered pulling Harry in the direction of his dormitory. 'I hope you know how to get into your pyjamas yourself.'

Harry gave him a quick nod, eager for James to know that he was not a nuisance and could look after himself.

The moment James had led Harry into his room, he recognised it instantly, it was the room he had been chased from that morning. Harry watched in silence as James dropped his hand, which he had held limply, and then walk over to a bed nearby. While James's back was turned, Harry had the opportunity to have a better look at the room, which was definitely one of the messiest he had ever been in so far. There were clothes, books, furniture and unusual pieces of paper all littered on the floor. Aunt Petunia definitely wouldn't let these boys into her house. Looking up expectantly at James, Harry found himself being glared at, the other boy had seen Harry analysing the room with disgust.

'If you don't like the room, then I think you should leave,' said James stiffly.

Stiffening from fear, Harry looked up at James worriedly. James frowned slightly, and then softened his expression. Bending down next to the bed, he opened the trunk that held all of Harry's things. Rummaging for a few seconds, James pulled out a set of pyjamas, which he held out for Harry to take.

'I'm not helping you put them on, taking you up here's one thing, but I'm not doing anything else.'

Staring up at James, Harry could see that he wasn't as mean as he had first thought. When Aunt Petunia or Uncle Vernon did something for him they did it grudgingly and made sure that he knew they didn't want to do it. Yet even though James did not want to do anything for Harry, he could still see that James was doing nice things at the same time, he did not have to hold his hand or collect his pyjamas, yet he had done it even when Lily was not around.

James waved his hand expectantly at him, and Harry realised he was signifying that he should get changed. Harry thought for a few seconds, he did not want to change in front of James. He could say, but there was the danger that James would shout at him. Yet Lily had told him that James was alright really and wouldn't hurt him... By telling James that he did not want him there when he got changed, he could see if Lily had been telling the truth. If James didn't shout at him, then that would mean that he wasn't as nasty as Harry had first thought.

Bravely, Harry spoke up, 'I don't want you to look!'

Shrugging, James walked over to another bed, which had to be his. Harry's eyes widened in surprise, he wasn't used to getting his own way, Aunt Petunia and Uncle Vernon never did what he asked them.

With James's back now turned away from him, Harry walked over towards his bed, he had the idea that he could shield himself from James with the bed, it would make double sure that he wouldn't see him. It would still be difficult because James's bed was directly opposite his own. Beginning to turn, so as he could keep an eye on James, Harry suddenly stood still. There had been a crunch under his foot, James had heard too and his head snapped round, his eyes narrowed.

'What did you just tread on?'

Harry bit his lip, then lifted his foot to see. It looked like he had stepped on a photo frame, the glass had cracked into a spider web; luckily Harry had not cut his foot. The photo was obviously important to James because Harry could see him getting angry. Frowning, Harry looked down. He could still see that there were three figures between cracks in the glass, James and maybe his parents.

'You're so annoying do you know that?' grumbled James as he got up to look at the damage Harry had made to the photo frame.

Soon James was in front of Harry, bending down. Harry flinched in shock, his foot had been roughly grabbed by James; he was checking that Harry had not cut himself. Staring at the back of James's head in surprise, Harry noted that James was making sure that he was okay, even though he was really mad at him. No one had ever done that before! His own aunt hadn't cared yesterday when Dudley had given him a Chinese Burn. Maybe James wasn't so bad after all.

'You shouldn't have put it on the floor,' Harry said bravely.

James looked up from checking Harry's foot. 'So you _do_ stick up for yourself,' he said, feigning shock. James dropped Harry's foot, letting it thud to the floor, he had been tenderly cupping it in his hands only moments ago. 'Get dressed!' he commanded.

Harry stayed standing where he was. He was confused, James was nice one minute, then horrible the next. Lily had assured that James would not hurt him, so maybe it was time that he actually stood up for himself and didn't let James bully him. Taking a deep breath, but standing up to his full height, Harry stared James straight in the eye with a determined look.

'Why are you picking on me?'

James raised an eyebrow and smiled, he had seen the change in Harry's stature. He had a desire to laugh, Harry only came up to his waist and he was looking determined for a fight. James considered putting him in his place, but then he remembered how shy the child was. Maybe he should let him win, just this once, the child could do with some confidence.

'Alright, alright!' exclaimed James, while holding his hands up in surrender, he was pretending that Harry had scared him. 'I'm sorry I've been mean to you. I was just mad that you started crying this morning. You were the one that was sneaking around our room and you deserved to be told off for it. But then you started crying and Lily moaned at me. You should own up when you've been naughty.'

Bowing his head, Harry muttered, 'sorry,' while sniffing at the same time to prevent himself crying.

James shifted guiltily; he hadn't meant to make Harry cry. Relenting he held out his hand, rolling his eyes at the same time, he couldn't believe he had reverted back to childhood. 'Friends.'

Tears still glistened in his eyes, but when Harry looked up there was a broad grin on his face, he was being accepted.

'So are you going to get dressed now?'

Trying to pull himself up onto the large four poster bed, which was far too big for him, Harry realised that he could not do it. He turned to find his progress being watched with amusement by James. Harry looked at him expectantly; he did not want to embarrass himself by asking for help that would be admitting that he needed James.

The strategy eventually worked, James took pity on Harry and walked over to help. He lifted the child easily into the air and then chucked him onto the bed. Harry responded with a squeal of delight and sat up grinning. James edged away from the bed and towards the door.

'Goodnight then,' he said self-consciously, being motherly was not in his nature.

As the door slammed the candles blew out and Harry threw the covers over his head, he did not like the dark. He had thought about asking James to stay before he went, but he wasn't sure whether James was _that_ kind.

Slowly removing the covers covering his head, Harry sat up; he had not forgotten what James had told him about The Bloody Baron. However, as soon as he tried to search the room, he realised that he couldn't see, the room was pitch black. Fighting the desperate urge to hide back under the sheets and clamp his eyes shut, Harry carefully jumped out of the high bed and began searching for a light, but there didn't seem to be a light switch anywhere. Giving up his attempt at trying to find it, he opened the curtains and moonlight flooded into the room.

Half running, half walking back to his bed, Harry felt something rough under his foot. Searching the room swiftly for any evidence of The Bloody Baron, he bent down and picked a piece of paper up. Then he ran the last few paces to his new bed, tripping on his case and falling to the floor on the way. Allowing himself to wince and clutch his foot, Harry scanned the room once more to see if the noise had attracted anything undesirable. Looking back down at the disarray he had found himself in, Harry felt his heart give a small jolt of relief as he saw his invisibility cloak sprawled on the floor not too far away. Ignoring the pain in his foot, Harry crawled towards the cloak and dropped the paper to pull the cloak over himself. Looking down, he saw with satisfaction that his body had completely disappeared. The Bloody Baron would never find him now!

Turning his attention back to the piece of paper, Harry picked it up and climbed into bed, which took him several minutes. In a sitting position he carefully analysed what was in front of him. At his first glance, Harry was able to define the paper as a map of Hogwarts. However, what he found most intriguing were the little dots all over the castle which were labelled with names. It took a few minutes to search for himself, but Harry eventually found '_Harry Potter'_ labelled on the map. If he crawled up his bed, then the dot would move too. Eventually having tested the map as best he could, Harry pushed it under his pillow intending to use it in the morning.

Lying down Harry wrapped himself into the folds of the cloak. Suddenly it hit him, it had been his birthday today and he had forgotten! Yet he still thought it had been the best day ever, he had been scared, but he had found out that magic existed. Dumbledore had also told him that his own mum and dad had been able to perform magic. They had been wizards! With this thought he closed his sleepy eyes.

Harry woke with a jolt; the sound of students stamping up the stairs to bed had woken him. Listening intently, he heard the familiar voice that belonged to James's friend… Sirius, thought Harry after a bit of concentration of trying to remember the name. Harry rolled over to get comfortable, his eyes widened in shock... he couldn't see his body. However, after several seconds he remembered he had put on the invisibility cloak to prevent The Bloody Baron from finding him. Carefully he took it off, he wouldn't need it if the others were coming; he put it beneath him and closed his eyes just before the door banged open into the moon lit room.

'I am so glad its Saturday tomorrow, I can't do any more lessons,' said Sirius.

'What are you talking about Padfoot? You and James didn't even turn up to transfiguration this morning,' said a slightly disgruntled voice.

'You didn't tell McGonagall where we really were did you?' said James anxiously.

Completely ignoring Remus altogether, Sirius bounded over to Harry, 'Hey shall we wake him?'

James looked up and smirked.

Remus looked over at them, 'Don't be silly, leave him alone, what if his parents found out that you had been mean to him?'

Sirius tutted and raised his eyes, 'Alright –' he halted abruptly, noticing his friend had been desperately searching the room underneath the pile of rubbish that littered it. 'What are you doing Wormtail?'

'I'm er…looking for the marauders map.'

'Has it been lost again?' laughed Sirius.

Peter smiled back at him, 'To no fault of your own Sirius'.

Remus sighed, 'If we just look for it together, I'm sure we'll find it underneath this rubbish. Perhaps Peter and Sirius shouldn't be trusted to look after the map.'

'Yeah you're right… so Moony, you didn't tell McGonagall where Padfoot and I were this morning did you?'

'If you do it again I will.'

Hastily getting onto his knees to try and avoid Remus's glowering expression, James began to help Peter scour the room for their map, which was incidentally one of the group's most prized possessions. While all this was going on, Harry silently fell back to sleep.

Getting frustratingly bored after ten minutes of searching, Sirius got up from his position on the floor and saw the small lump that was Harry in the bed next to him. Carefully walking the few paces towards Harry's bed, he grasped the boy's shoulders shaking him awake.

Harry let out an ear splitting yelp followed by a startled cry, which obviously wasn't what Sirius had intended to happen as a panicked look overtook his face. None of them sure of what to do to comfort the screaming child stood looking at each other with anxious stares.

Remus stepped forward, while glaring at Sirius. 'You shouldn't have done that.'

Walking over to Harry, Remus sat down on the corner of his bed next to him. The child was looking at all of them frightened.

'Shhhhh it's okay Harry, no ones going to hurt you. Sirius was just having a little joke, he didn't realise that you wouldn't like it,' he reassured.

Harry was crying in stifled sobs, he was embarrassed that they were all staring at him, he wasn't scared of Sirius, but he had been scared at the time because he had thought The Bloody Baron had caught him.

'You didn't mean it did you Sirius? I think Harry would like you to apologise.'

A look of horror dawned on Sirius's face at Remus's suggestion that he should apologise to a child. Then looking at Remus's determined face he looked back at Harry, 'I'm sorry,' he muttered.

'There,' said Remus, turning round so he could see Harry's face, 'Sirius didn't mean to scare you.'

Harry gave Remus a small smile and a nod.

'Do you want to go back to sleep?'

'Yes.'

Gently pushing Harry back into a lying position, Remus covered him up with the duvet. However, he halted what he was doing as he looked back at Harry's face. The boy's fringe had moved and he could see a lightening shape scar on his forehead.

Remus got up quickly off the bed to lean over Harry to get a better view, 'Where did you get that scar?'

The others in the room had been attracted by Remus's change in tone. They walked over to where he was standing over Harry and began gawping at the scar too.

Harry was embarrassed from the attention, but at the same time pleased, they liked him!

'It was from a car crash, when my mum and dad died.'

The boys looked at each other questioningly, clearly none of them agreed with Harry's story. They had enough magical knowledge to understand that the scar was a result of a curse and not a car crash. Yet neither of them had the heart to challenge the story, he was only five and his parents had died. It would be heartless to upset him.

Harry grinned and turned over as they walked away to start searching for their map again. They were beginning to accept him, no one had ever liked him before and it made him happy more than cautious. There was a crumple under his pillow as he tried to shift into a more comfortable position. Stretching his arm out to pull the map out, Harry grinned. He was feeling happier than he had ever been and wanted to use it. Carefully he put on the invisibility cloak and got out of bed. Checking that the boys' backs were turned, he sneaked out of the room.

Harry had made his way down to the common room while gazing happily at the map. When he finally looked up he realised that he was alone in the middle of the dark common room, which was only dimly lit by the dying fire. Harry frowned, he had not thought ahead, The Bloody Baron could get him down here where no one would be able to help him. He gulped miserably, it was dark and scary. Backing away, he looked around him to make sure there really wasn't anyone in the room, he stopped as soon as he hit a wall. His eyes flickered from side to side and then he looked back down at the map. Thankfully he could see the dots James, Sirius, Remus and Peter coming down the stairs he had just come down from. He smiled, he was going to be safe.

A door opened from Harry's left and four boys' walked into the Common room. _Lumos_ they muttered together.

'Can you see him?' muttered someone, as they shone their wands round the room.

'No, I don't think we're going to find him like this. He has an invisibility cloak, he's probably hiding and thinks it a game.' replied James seriously.

'Looks like we're going to be playing hide n seek.' Said Sirius happily.

Hearing the words _hide n seek_, Harry's eyes lit up, he had never played hide n seek before. He had seen Dudley play it with his friends, but had never been invited to play, he knew how it worked. It was going to be even better being invisible though. His eyes flickered round the room and settled on a chair, running over to it, he crouched down behind it. Here he could watch the boys' hunting for him on the map.

'Harry,' called James softly, his hands were held out to touch anything he might not be able to see, 'I'm coming to get you.'

Giggling, Harry stood up and removed the cloak from his face making his head appear floating in mid air. 'I'm over here.' Quickly he pulled the cloak back on and ran.

The boys' saw him and rushed over, they were too late. James stared grimly round the room, he was getting bored of humouring Harry, 'This could last all night, I reckon we should stun him if he appears again.'

'I hope you're joking,' replied Remus.

Shrugging, James walked away, 'Harry if you come out now, I'll give you sweets tomorrow,' he called.

Ignoring the bribe, Harry walked up behind Sirius and poked him in the back. Running away as soon as he could, Harry felt some resistance. Frowning, he looked round and his eyes widened in surprise. Sirius had been quicker than he had thought, he had grabbed part of the cloak and it was now in his hand. Biting his lip, Harry ran faster, still looking behind him to see if Sirius, who was momentarily surprised at having the cloak in his hand, would catch him. He ran right into James's outstretched arms. Harry screamed and struggled free, crawling through James's legs to hide behind an armchair in the corner of the room.

Smiling, James walked slowly over to where Harry was hiding. Kneeling on the chair he was able to reach behind it and grab Harry, who was trapped between the chair and wall.

'No. No. No.' whined Harry as he was raised out of his prison to find himself in James's arms, he hadn't wanted the game to end so quickly.

James was laughing as Harry kicked him to be let down. But then Harry stiffened and became still, his eyes widening in horror. James frowned and looked into his face.

Then Harry screamed and hugged James tighter, something had just brushed his leg. He turned and felt his arm being pulled away from around James's neck, he screamed again. He burrowed his head into James's neck, who responded by leaning away, and putting him back on the floor laughing. Harry latched onto his leg to hide; the thing that was tormenting him had just ruffled his hair.

'Rooooaaaaar!' shouted Sirius in Harry's ear, removing the invisibility cloak at the same time.

Harry was pinned to the floor as Sirius tickled his ribs. Giggles replaced Harry's screams and he started to hit Sirius to make him stop.

Sirius immediately complied by grabbing his ankles and tipping him upside down.

Harry's hair stood on end and he screamed. 'No put me down!' he whined.

James bent down, 'Don't ever get out of bed without telling us first,' he said laughing at Harry's wide eyed expression.

Sirius put Harry back on the floor; he felt the child had been punished enough.

'Again,' said Harry putting out his arms, having decided he liked it after all.

**AN: Harry's finally getting the confidence to talk and do what he wants, so James is going to be getting some trouble in the next chapter.**

**Once again thank you for the reviews I previously received for this chapter. **


	6. James meets his match

**James meets his match**

Harry woke squinting at the bright early morning sun, rubbing his eyes; he noted that he was still at Hogwarts. The room was comforting and Harry did not feel scared at waking up in a strange place, this was much more comfortable than his cupboard. He liked sharing the room with other people as it didn't make him feel so lonely, that's how he usually felt at home. Staying at Hogwarts had meant that people paid attention to him. The boys' were starting to like him too, thought Harry as memories of the night before flooded his brain.

Pushing his hand against his pillow to push himself out of bed, Harry heard a crumple. Momentarily fazed by the noise, Harry creased his brow. However, soon enough his face lit up in excitement having remembered what was underneath his pillow. Suddenly gaining enthusiasm for the surprises and adventures awaiting him, Harry plunged his hand under the pillow to pull out the map he had found the night before. Looking down eagerly to see the dot labelled '_Harry Potter', _Harry felt the excitement well up inside him, he could explore the castle with this map.

Placing the map to one side, Harry jumped down form his enormous bed to get dressed. Bending down, he opened his case, separating the clothes, he realised that none of them were his. Picking something to wear, Harry took several minutes putting it on. Having finally dressed, Harry looked down at his green T-shirt and jeans, for once he did not look odd, the clothes fitted him perfectly.

The others were still asleep and Harry thought it was best to leave them, he didn't think they would be very happy if he woke them so he decided to go downstairs on his own. He walked over to the door, and standing on tiptoes he turned the handle with the hand that wasn't holding the map. On his way downstairs Harry debated on whether he should tell Lily about the map and show her the little dots which were the students. However, when he reached the common room he found that out of the few students who had risen early, Lily was not among them.

Harry decided that he should wait, however he couldn't contain the excitement about telling Lily about the map and showing her the dot labelled '_Harry Potter'_. Yet, as time passed, Harry was gradually becoming bored. Most importantly he was having second thoughts about showing Lily the map, he was not sure that she would approve. Harry had been told explicitly yesterday that he wasn't to walk around the castle on his own. If he showed Lily the map she wouldn't let him use it. And even if she did, she would have to accompany him and he was sure that that wouldn't be quite so much fun.

Glancing at the wall every so often Harry couldn't help wanting to walk out of the common room and go and explore by himself, but he didn't want to because he knew he wouldn't be allowed. He could go upstairs and get James up or Remus, he probably wouldn't mind seeing the map. Coming to a decision, Harry climbed the stairs back to the room he had just vacated. Once there he saw that no one had got up. Tip toeing to James's bed he stood just high enough to be eye level to look in James's eyes, but they were shut. Considering that he should poke him, Harry lifted his arm, but James's eyes flickered open at that exact second. They widened and then relaxed as realisation dawned on the owner that it was Harry standing over him.

'Don't _ever _stand over me like that again,' said James glowering down at Harry as he sat up in his bed.

Harry looked at him guiltily, and began to fidget where he stood. He didn't want to ask James to come downstairs now that he was mad at him. James was rubbing his eyes, so Harry took the opportunity to slouch off to open the door and disappear.

'Where do you think you're going?' James voice echoed across the room as Harry was just about to close the door behind him.

'Downstairs,' said Harry mulishly. He was being moaned at again without even having done anything.

'You can't go alone, I don't want you disappearing by walking out the common room, I'll get yelled at by Professor McGonagall and Lily,' he said grumpily.

Walking back to his bed, Harry looked at it sulkily; he couldn't be bothered to struggle to get back on top so he sat on the floor. He watched as James jumped out of his own bed and walked out of the room to go and wash in a bathroom. The door slammed and the next person was disturbed from their sleep. Harry noticed Remus getting his things together and walking out of the room. Before he went, he noticed Harry sitting on the floor.

'Morning Harry,' he said kindly, 'are you okay sitting down there?' Harry nodded dully making Remus smile. 'Well I'll be back in a minute and it looks like James will be too. We can take you downstairs to meet Lily and she'll take you to breakfast.' He walked to the door, then turned to look at Harry one last time before he went. Harry was still looking upset, walking back to him, Remus bent down to whisper in Harry's ear.

'While you wait for me and James to return, how about you pay Sirius back for waking you up last night?'

Remus left and Harry suddenly became alert, he looked over at Sirius's bed and then cautiously got up from his position. Taking the whole thing seriously, he crouched down and walked over to Sirius. Lacking the ability to scare anyone or be naughty, Harry gently tapped Sirius on the head believing this would scare him awake. It did not. Harry did it slightly harder, but there was still no response. He scratched his head confused, what was he doing wrong?

'Ahh,' screamed Harry, but it was short lived, he had not really been scared, he knew that James had grabbed hold of him.

James had been watching Harry's progress and wanted to save the child from humiliation, so he had grabbed hold of Harry from behind. 'That's how you're suppose to do it, hard and sharp,' he said amused and disappointed at the same time. 'Honestly has no one ever taught you to be bad?'

Harry looked back at him confused, the adults he had been around had always told him to be good, and he had done it, otherwise he'd get shouted at or if he was at home put in his dark cupboard. This was the first person who had ever said it was okay to be bad.

'I'm not supposed to be naughty, I'll get told off if I'm bad.'

James shook his head, 'but that's the point, it's fun trying not to get caught.'

Harry looked at him perplexed, he thought the exact opposite to James, he found it scary waiting for someone to yell at him.

While Harry was contemplating this, James took out his wand and pointed it at Sirius. The boy rolled out of bed and onto the floor, taking his duvet with him, a bump could be heard audibly. Harry's eyes widened and his mouth dropped open, but then he giggled.

James smirked and walked back to his bed to put away his things, 'Now that's how you're supposed to do it.'

Sirius leapt up, grabbing hold of the side of the bed and pulled himself on, not even bothering to stand up first. 'What the hell was that?' he said lying flat on his back finding it hard to open his eyes in the bright light.'

Gaping at him, Harry stood staring by the side of the bed with innocent eyes, this was the first time he had been part of being naughty. He was fighting the desire to laugh and be serious at the same time; you weren't supposed to wake people up.

'Pay back for waking Harry last night.' replied James. 'Harry lacks the talent for rule breaking, so I did it instead.'

Harry gasped putting his hand to his mouth at the same time to prevent himself from giggling. Sirius had just uttered a naughty four letter word that had started with C. And he was now getting up, a grumpy look on his face. The first person his blurry eyes set on was Harry, who looked behind him for James's support, but he was too involved with putting his stuff away to notice.

'J – James's idea,' whimpered Harry, while pointing lamely behind him.

James looked up smirking at Harry's innocence, catching on Sirius kept his role up.

'No, no, no Harry. I believe that it was your fault, not James's, you shouldn't blame other people.' He said calmly.

Widening his eyes, Harry shook his head adamantly. 'No James,' he repeated half heartedly.

Sirius shook his head disappointedly, and looked up at James, 'Well you know what we have to do with liars...' his face took on a pained expression, pretending to not like what he was about to do.

The two boys began to circle Harry, while he looked at them worried at what they were going to do to him now. James was the first to leap forward and grab hold of him from behind, grabbing hold of his arms, but he didn't hold them too tight which made Harry curious. Perhaps Sirius and James were only playing with him after all, if they had really wanted to hurt him they would have already done it last night.

Sirius grabbed the duvet behind him and threw it over Harry's head, while James released his arms.

Harry crossed them over his chest immediately, he thought he was starting to get to know what these boys were like. They were teasing him. If he just stood still until they pulled off the duvet then they would probably just leave him alone, he hoped.

'Aw,' came Sirius's voice 'he doesn't want to play.'

The duvet was pulled off his head and Harry was met with James grinning at him, 'I guess one night with the mauraunder's means you don't scare so easy any more. Come on,' he grabbed Harry's hand and pulled him to the door.

They met Remus on the way downstairs to the common room. Harry sat down with them, he was waiting for something interesting to happen, but all they did was talk. Standing up, Harry tugged Remus's sleeve and pointed to the exit of the common room, Remus looked up.

'Can we go outside?'

Remus shook his head, 'We're waiting for Lily first, and then we can go outside, she won't be able to find you otherwise.' Remus turned back to James, 'I have to go and see Professor McGonagall, so I'll see you at breakfast okay.'

James nodded, Remus got up and left but not before saying goodbye to Harry, leaving James and Harry seated alone together.

James looked at Harry tiredly, the child was watching him expectantly. 'I'm going to have a look at the notice board, stay here.'

Harry watched as James got up, but he did not want to be left behind, he was bored and wanted to see where the notice board was, so he got up too, following close behind James who had not seen him get up to follow. To Harry's disappointment, James only walked over to the other side of the common room rather than out of it. He stood reading the board for a while and then stepped back into Harry, who he had not seen. He looked down and sighed.

'I thought I told you to wait over there,' he said pointing.

'I want to go outside,' repeated Harry.

'No! Go and wait over there, and don't follow me around,' ordered James.

Harry walked back to the seating area but he did not sit down, he was looking back over to James, he was being mean again. He put his hand in his pocket, remembering the map was hidden in there, and then looked over at the hole in the wall.

Slowly, knowing that he was being naughty, Harry walked towards the portrait hole while scanning the room for James to check that he was not watching him. But James had said it was okay to be bad before, so he wasn't really doing anything that bad. Once outside, Harry found himself immersed in a maze of corridors. However, instead of feeling the tight knot of fear he had felt quite a lot yesterday, he felt excited at the prospect of more adventure. Looking down at the map, he decided to go left.

Having followed a variety of steps and passages Harry had found himself at the bottom of a winding staircase. He stood at the bottom craning his neck to see round the corner debating whether to go up. According to the map it was the just an empty circular room in one of the towers. However, from Harry's stationary position he could hear a peculiar hooting as if it were coming form a bird. Coming to a decision Harry grabbed the handrail and pulled himself onto the first step. With each step that he took, Harry was still unable to see round the corner into the room above. Half way up Harry found himself panicking at the prospect of something horrid waiting in the room above for him. It could be The Bloody Baron! To pacify himself Harry looked at the map shaking in his hand. There were no dots apart from one labelled 'Harry Potter' in this part of the castle. However, a sickening thought entered Harry's mind, which was did the map even show ghosts?

Standing for what seemed an eternity, Harry wondered whether he should go on, but recklessness came over him, he would show James that he wasn't scared. He hurried up the stairs before he could think about changing his mind and came to a threshold. Looking through the door, Harry was surprised to find hundreds of owls, he gasped in delight, he had never seen an owl before apart from in story books. Walking forward Harry bent down and stroked a small golden brown fluffy owl, which hooted happily at his soft touch. Having such a wonderful time Harry hadn't heard the footsteps coming up from behind him.

A few seconds later a hand firmly grabbed his arm and turned him round and pulled him up, Harry stared up in horror into an angry face, which was pale and lacked any friendliness.

'What are you doing to my owl?' the boy said harshly.

Terrified Harry didn't speak. He had a feeling that it had not been such a good idea to walk off alone, this boy did not look like he was going to be very nice. At least James wouldn't hurt him and was nice sometimes.

Getting angry at Harry's silence the boy began to shake him, 'WELL? Who are you and what are you doing here?'

Harry blinked and then responded 'My – my name is Harry, I – I wasn't doing anything wrong, I was just stroking ...' he trailed off, the boy wasn't looking any nicer, and Harry was unsure how he was going to get out of the situation. Before he knew it, tears were streaking down his face.

The boy let go of him quickly, he seemed even more hostile now that Harry was crying. He turned his back on him to inspect the owl, then took out a roll of parchment and put it on the owl's leg. He turned back to Harry. Harry gulped uncertainly, what was this boy going to do with him now? He was going to tell Dumbledore that he had run away and then he really would be shouted at this time.

'Come on, I'm going to take you to a teacher, perhaps they'll know where you've come from.'

The boy took hold of Harry's upper arm, and led him towards the stairs. However, their way was blocked. Relief flooded through Harry, James had come to find him. Harry looked at him pleased, but he could see that James was unsure of the situation, he was looking at the arm that the boy with black hair held and was assuming the worse.

'What are you doing Snivellus?' he said uncertainly.

'Go away Potter, this has nothing to do with you,' said the boy menacingly.

James held himself stiffly, 'He has more to do with me than you think. Give him to me, I'm suppose to be looking after him.'

'Obviously not doing it very well. Him up here on his own. I was of the understanding that children aren't supposed to be left alone. I'm going to give him to a teacher, you're not looking after him properly and someone ought to know'

James flushed red, 'This has nothing to do with you, give him to me.'

Harry looked anxiously between the two. They were glaring angrily at each other and it looked as though they were going to start fighting. Harry let out a whimper of fright, he wanted to go back to the common room.

The boys looked down at Harry they could see he looked scared and perhaps this was what made them stop sniping at each other.

James stepped forward he grabbed Harry's hand and pulled him away from the other boy.

'I wouldn't tell anyone if I were you snivellus, because I think you were holding Harry's arm a little too tightly.'

James turned to leave, but then he stiffened. Harry looked behind and saw that the other boy had taken out his wand, he looked back at James who seemed to be doing something strange, he was gasping for air, he took out his own wand and pointed at himself, then turned back sneering.

'You'll regret that Snivellus, Petrificas Totalas.'

The other boy stiffened and fell backwards. Harry blinked in shock as the boy fell backwards and dozens of owls took flight around their heads. Harry screamed and grabbed hold of James more tightly with both hands.

'Make them stop James. Make them stop.' He yelped.

James seemed to come to his senses, his rage having been taken by the child's yelps of fright. He held Harry's hand tightly while shielding his head. It was not a nice feeling to have birds circling close to his face. He pulled Harry quickly down the stairs and then slowed midway where they could just hear the rustling of the birds above. He looked down at Harry with displeasure etched in his face.

'I can't believe you walked off, you've got me into trouble again. Lily went mad when she saw you weren't with me this morning and of course she told professor McGonagall who also went mad at me by the way. We've been searching for you all morning,' said James disgruntled. 'And now YOU got me into a fight with snivellus.' He shook his head angrily and pulled Harry down the stairs, making him walk faster.

Harry whimpered, 'Sorry,' he sniffed.

James abruptly stopped and bent down to examine the small boy's face, which was still holding a mixture of terror and fear. Biting it back Harry whispered, 'Who was that boy?'

James frowned and did not reply, he stood up and carried on walking with Harry walking lamely by his side.

'You hurt him,' spoke Harry once again rather desperately.

'Look Harry if you keep causing trouble Lily will never go out with me.' James snapped looking furious. 'Please don't tell her what happened up there...'

Harry stared into James' face with wide eyes. 'I thought you were going to be nice to me now, you said we were friends.'

James looked at him as though he were pathetic then softened. 'Of course we are, but you have to be good.'

Harry stopped. 'I want to go back and help that boy, you made his head hurt by letting him fall.'

James shook his head in shock 'No way! We are not going back to help Snivellus, he would have hurt you.' said James incredulously. 'Believe me he's not a nice person.'

James tried to pull Harry the way he wanted to go, but Harry resisted trying to go back the way they had come from.

'No no, we have to help, it's not nice to leave,' said Harry determined.

James look back at him horrified at the idea, he had a feeling that the determined look in Harry's eye was not going to disappear. He was much bigger than Harry and could easily make him follow him to the common room if he really wanted to, but James had a feeling that threatening Harry not to tell Lily what had happened to Snivellus was not going to work. James was beginning to realise that Harry had a kind nature that overcame his fear of being punished; no wonder Lily liked him so much.

He tried to dissuade him one last time, 'You do realise that boy is a Slytherin, don't you Harry? Slytherin's and Gryffindor's do – not – help – each – other,' he accentuated.

Harry stuck out his bottom lip sulkily.

James's nostrils flared and he grabbed hold of Harry's hand again and pulled him. 'I can't believe I'm doing this,' he muttered.

Shocked that he had actually been listened to, it took Harry several moments to remember that the boy they were going back to help hadn't been that nice to him. He had made him scared, although, he would be with James the whole time so he would be okay he reasoned.

Once they had travelled up to the owlery, James walked over to where the boy lay still on the floor, he bent down to look at the cut at the back of his head which he healed. While he did so, Harry took the opportunity to look closer at the boy. He edged up close to where the boy's head lay, towering over him. He could see that he was pale and had long black hair. What made Harry cringe was that he was obviously awake, but all the muscles in his body were frozen. Harry was glad that he had made James come back to help, even if the boy wasn't very nice he didn't deserve to be left alone.

Watching patiently, James eventually waved his wand and the boy could immediately move again, he glared back at James and then left the room without saying a word.

When James and Harry entered the common room ten minutes later, Harry was grabbed into a tight hug by Lily. Harry cringed at the touch, he wasn't used to the affection.

'Harry never walk off again! I was so scared, I thought you might have got lost, anything could have happened and it would have been all my fault.'

Harry tried to push her away while questioning her, 'Why, what could have happened?'

James stood beside them smiling at Lily, 'See I told you, he's all safe and sound.'

'How dare you!' Lily replied in response, her temper rising. 'You were supposed to look after him, but as usual you have to come before anyone else.'

James' smiling face turned into a furious glare. 'Oh shut it Evans, don't you ever tire of being my mother.'

With one swift move Lily moved forward and hit him hard on the arm, "Oh grow up."

"Come on Harry let's go and have breakfast," said Lily in a falsely calm voice.

"Okay," said Harry recovering form the momentary shock of the incident, he'd rather seen a lot of violence that morning.

'Are you allowed to hit people here?' Harry was confused, he had seen a lot of violence that morning, which was conflicting with what he had been told at school. People weren't allowed to hit each other.

Lily gasped as she realised that he had seen. 'I'm sorry Harry, no you're not allowed to hit people it's very bad.' She looked into his anxious eyes and then turned to James 'I'm sorry I hit you, I shouldn't have lost my temper.'

'My aunt doesn't mind when Dudley hits me though,' said Harry dismally. 'She never tells him off, but if I hit him back she gets really mad.'

Lily crinkled her forehead unsure what she should say.

Harry looked up at James and saw that he was still looking cross at Lily's admonishment and Harry remembered that it had actually been his fault for walking off. James had told him he liked Lily and Harry was feeling bad for making her dislike him, he wanted James to like him too because James was funny when he was being nice, he had seen that when they had played hide n seek last night. He turned to Lily.

'James hasn't been that bad, it was my fault that I walked off. James has been really good, he played hide n seek with me last night, it was really fun,' he said brightly.

Lily weakened slightly. 'Well that was nice of you James, Harry seems to have taken a liking to you. I suspect he'll want to come out to play with you when you've had your lessons.'

James reddened slightly, he did not want Harry to become attached to him, he had a feeling he'd be following him around and Lily would enjoy watching as a punishment for not watching him properly.

That afternoon Lily and Harry set off to her care of Magical Creatures lesson which was held outside in the school grounds. On the way, Lily started to explain about magic, which Harry seemed fascinated about. However, the subject eventually changed as Harry looked to the side, some distance off was the boy James had hurt that morning. Harry looked up at Lily, she was looking at the boy pensively.

'Lily, why is that boy called snivellus?'

Lily looked down at Harry in shock. 'His name is snivellus,' she said stiffly, she looked sad too. 'His name is Severus Snape, James and that are just calling him mean names. You shouldn't call people names even if you don't like them Harry,' she said biting her lip and looking over to Severus again, the sad look back in her eye.

'Hey Evans can I walk with you?' shouted James, running up from behind them. Harry slowed down, but Lily had not so he was forced to walk faster and couldn't stop for James.

Yet James still caught them up, he walked on Harry's side instead of Lily's, determined not to irritate her. Harry grabbed hold of James's hand, Lily looked down and then smiled, but it was forced and mocking.

'Well it looks like Harry would like you to come so I suppose you could walk us down'

James grimaced, he did not want to be caught holding a five year olds hand, he shook him off. Harry looked up at him hurt, he stuck out his bottom lip as if to cry and James quickly grabbed his hand again.

Pleased that James was holding his hand, Harry looked down at their clasped hands, then looked up again, the Severus boy was walking closer to them now and Lily looked worried.

'Still trailing after this little brat Potter,' he spat at James.

James' hand immediately went for his wand pocket.

'No! James you can't start another fight remember what happened last time?' Lily shouted irritably, obviously referring to an entirely different fight to the one that had occurred that morning.

Severus raised his wand and a jet of light shot out, it narrowly missed James and hit Harry full on.

The three students gasped in horror as Harry fell to the ground.

**AN:** **Thanks for the reviews I received last week and people putting me on their favourite lists, I really appreciate it! I have written the next couple of chapters for this story and will post them weekly.**

**Hope you enjoyed this weeks chapter, I would appreciate it if anyone could comment on whether my writing flows well. I have trouble with putting commas in the right places and have tried to improve but I am unaware whether it has worked.**

**If anyone has any questions I'd be happy to answer them through a PM.**

**Merry Christmas!**


	7. Discussing Harry

**Discussing Harry**

Waving goodnight to her friends, Lily sat back peacefully in her armchair and closed her eyes. She was alone in the common room at last, the only time in the day that she had time to herself. Harry had just gone to bed which pleased her greatly because she was exhausted from looking after him for the whole day, it was tiring watching him all the time. She worried constantly that he would get hurt, ever since the events of the morning it proved that he could. It was dangerous such a young child being around so many witches and wizards who were not fully trained and she wondered what Professor Dumbledore was thinking letting him stay here.

It was not Harry's fault that it was so difficult to look after him, after all he was only a child. He was shy, but polite, yet his curiosity got him into trouble. Like going off on his own this morning, she dreaded to think what could have happened to him, he's tiny she thought, he could have easily gotten lost. His curiosity was definitely something that was going to get him into trouble one day she thought with amusement, she was remembering events that had occurred after Severus had accidentally cursed him, which she was still fuming about. It was not only Severus's fault but James Potter's too they were both definitely not changing for the better any time soon.

Channelling her thoughts away from the two boys, because she sensed she was going to enter a tirade about them, Lily thought back to Harry and smiled. She had taken him down to a Care of Magical Creatures class, which she had with other 6th year students. Harry had been patient the whole lesson and she felt he deserved a treat for being so good and to cheer him up for being stunned by Severus. So once the students had disappeared after the lesson had finished, Lily had taken him up to a unicorn enclosure which her teacher had reserved for the third year students. She was fully aware that unicorns did not like wizards, but the teacher had caught a young foul, so she had thought it would not mind Harry stroking it. She had told Harry to be quiet and it eventually walked over to them.

Harry had been excited and stroked it enthusiastically, perhaps harder than most people would have done it, but she was sure that it wasn't harming the creature and she didn't want to destroy his fun by telling him what to do. Just as she began to explain the importance of the tail, he proceeded to yank out some hairs, which caused her to whimper in shock... At least he had been listening she thought dismally.

It would serve her right to be paid back for what had happened this morning, she could have prevented it if she had got her wand out, common sense should have told her that Serverus and James Potter in close proximity was not a good idea. She sighed, James was so keen for her to like him, yet everything he did was immature. He thought he was the best because he was Quidditch captain and that amounted to getting anything he wanted...even her.

He had asked her enough times to go out with him, but she always refused. Frowning slightly she recalled how good he had been with Harry, even though he had the odd glitch, Harry couldn't stop talking about him all day, she wondered what Harry even liked about him. She backtracked her thoughts and wondered whether there was perhaps something attractive about him if he wasn't arrogant. Then perhaps she would like him, he was intelligent, talkative, amusing and good looking.

_Oh my God_ _did I actually say that. Potter good looking, no way! _She thought, as she opened her eyes to reassure herself that she was the only one in the room. If she really thought hard about it she did like James a little bit, for one instance she had started to call him by his first name.

Jerking herself from her confused thoughts, Lily's eyes followed the progress of a figure that walked towards her from the other side of the common room. As it came closer she sighed and raised her eyes to the ceiling exasperated...James Potter. He looked at her guiltily and seemed unsure of himself. Lily was in no haste to make the situation better for him, she was still angry. Harry was a child and James should have known better than to start a row in front of him. She crossed her arms over her chest and looked at him with a stony expression.

'Hey,' he said uncertainly standing across from her, he hesitantly took a seat. 'I'm _really_ sorry for what happened to Harry this morning. I never meant for him to get hurt, it was an accident.' He said, while staring at the floor, he was finding it painful to look into her hostile eyes.

Lily sniffed scornfully, 'An accident? It might have been Severus who cursed him, but you still responded to his goading and you still lost Harry this morning.'

James looked up apologetically, 'I know,' he said quietly, 'I shouldn't have done it at all, it was wrong and I'll try and make it up to him.'

Surprise surfaced on Lily's face, James was showing genuine remorse, she couldn't remember a time when he had actually been truly sorry. He hadn't even mentioned Severus, who she knew he hated, not blaming Severus for having a part to play in what had happened was a big step for James. Perhaps James was finally growing up, and it was this that made Lily stop glaring at him.

'I don't think he's that angry with you to be honest. I think he's used to being let down and hurt emotionally, so I guess he forgave you. He really likes you, he's talked about you all day, so don't hurt his feelings again, he's only five.'

James let out a small smile, he was finally getting Lily's approval, and he did feel genuinely sorry. He was surprised that Harry liked him so much; he personally felt that he hadn't been that nice to him, being affectionate to a child wasn't his style. Yet Lily had said that she thought Harry was used to being hurt, so perhaps if he didn't have a very nice family at home, the small amount of kindness that he showed him was enough to make him like him he guessed.

'Yeah I won't hurt him again. I think he's great, it's funny to watch him because he doesn't get stuff... you know adult conversation...He's a little quiet though.' He said as an afterthought.

Lily nodded, 'I don't think his family are that encouraging at home. He was really nervous about asking me things; he's loosened up now I told him it was okay to question me.'

James nodded, in comprehension, 'He doesn't actually have any parents, he told me they died in a car crash. He lives with his aunt and uncle, so I guess that perhaps their not too enthusiastic about keeping him.'

'That makes sense, he probably likes you so much because you're the first proper male role model in his life,' said Lily seriously, no wonder Harry didn't mind James being horrible to him, he was used to it, and the little James showed to care for him was enough to make him like him.

James's eyes widened in surprise at her statement, he wasn't sure he of all people was up to the job.

Confusion suddenly overtook Lily's face. 'You've only known him for two days, how did you find out his parents were dead?'

James suddenly looked at her uncomfortably, 'Well we didn't mean to, it just happened by accident. Remus was putting him to bed and his fringe moved, revealing a scar and he asked how he had got it and he said in a car crash. It wasn't like we were trying to question him or anything,' said James hastily, sensing he was on sensitive ground.

'That gives us more explanation as to why he's the way he is, the way he acts sometimes, he gets really awkward. He told me his aunt and uncle shut him in the cupboard when he's naughty. I think we should tell Dumbledore about this because it's abuse. Harry's a sweet little boy, he doesn't deserve to live in fear, he's an innocent child.'

James nodded, he had been shocked by what Lily had told him about what Harry's relatives did to him, he also felt guilty for the way he had treated the child, and vowed to be kinder. 'You know what, the whole thing is weird, the scar on his forehead doesn't even look like it's from a car crash, it's more of a curse. If you get a chance have a look and tell me what you think. What's stranger is that Dumbledore actually let you look after him. I mean you're only 16 why would he ask you to look after a child?'

Both of them jumped, a door had opened and slammed, but there was no one there. James looked at Lily open mouthed, he was unsure whether it had been a ghost or something else.

'I think Harry's come to see where you are.'

Harry stumbled over to them in the dark, his eyes were half open due to tiredness and his hair was sticking up at odd angles. He made his way over to Lily's side, as she was making room for him to sit on the edge of her chair.

'What are you doing down here, Harry?' said Lily kindly, stroking his hair back, not caring that she was messing it up even more. She smiled, she liked it messy, it made him look cute.

Harry looked suddenly embarrassed, he squirmed next to Lily and then said quietly, 'I had a nightmare...when I woke up James wasn't there, so I came down here to look for him.'

Lily smiled, 'We were just talking about this morning. James was saying how sorry he was that he had a row with Severus in front of you. What was your nightmare about?'

Harry grimaced, 'A ghost.'

James's eyes widened in dawning comprehension, he had a feeling Lily wasn't going to like Harry's next few words.

'I thought I told you that ghosts couldn't hurt you?'

'But The Bloody Barron can, he eats little children and he's coming after me. Isn't he James?' Harry said earnestly.

Lily slowly looked up at James, who was looking sheepish, her expression was one of horror, 'What have you been telling him?'

'Ah right…I — I was only kidding around, I didn't know he would actually believe me.'

Lily looked at him annoyed, and then turned back to Harry. 'Look Harry, whatever James has told you, it isn't true. The Bloody Baron does _not_ eat children…or anyone for that matter.' she finished as an after thought.

'I think it's Bedtime,' said James hastily, determined not to be yelled at by Lily he grabbed Harry's hand to pull him off the chair. He was leading Harry over to the door that lead to his dormitory.

Harry was rather surprised at James's hasty retreat and was a few steps behind him being pulled along, '_night Li—'_was all that Lily could hear before he was pulled out of sight.

James slowed as soon as the door to the stairs had been shut. He looked down at Harry remembering how Lily had told him that he should be nice to him, and he agreed with her, if Harry's relatives locked him in a cupboard then he couldn't have a very nice life.

'Look Harry, I was only joking when I told you about The Bloody Baron, I didn't mean it. I forgot to tell you that it was a joke, I'm sorry.'

Harry nodded, 'Okay,' he said just relieved that he no longer had to worry about ghosts anymore. A question he had been thinking for a while suddenly niggled at him, it was the right opportunity to ask when James was being so nice. 'James, what's Quidditch?'

James turned round and smiled, 'I'll tell you in the morning.'

**AN: This aimed to show Lily's feelings towards Harry because I haven't explored them in depth. It also aimed to show how James and Lily are putting things together slowly about Harry's life, it will make it far easier for them to understand how Harry is their child.**

**Sorry for the very short chapter, but I couldn't make it any longer because it really didn't go with the next chapter so it had to stand alone. Anyway to make it up to you the next one will be much longer. For those of you who like them long the next one looks as though it will reach the 6,000 word mark once I've finished editing it. It involves a bit of flying for Harry.**

**Thanks for all the reviews I received for the last chapter they were very helpful and encouraging.**


	8. Quidditch

**Quidditch**

Harry sat still concentrating on the commotion around him. He was currently in a Defence Against the Dark Arts lesson and he felt that it was by far the most exciting lesson he had been in at Hogwarts. Staring wide eyed, he saw students shoot jets of red light at each other, which consequently lead their partner to drop onto the floor unconscious. The disappointment at not being allowed to join in had soon worn off when Harry witnessed several people rubbing bruised heads. He was content to watch the class safely behind his desk at the back of the room.

Currently, Harry was watching the progress of James and Lily. He was pleased to note that Lily was not giving James an easy time; she was causing him to collapse on the ground with her wand, where he just missed the cushions piled neatly by his head. At first this show of violence had scared him, but Harry soon realised that it was something that Lily was supposed to do because other pairs of students were doing the same thing. Yet Harry was sure that James was falling much harder than anybody else in the room. He had concluded that Lily was probably getting her revenge for James automatically pairing up with her when the teacher had passed so that she wouldn't be able to refuse him without causing a scene.

Harry was personally feeling quite pleased as James got up grimacing for the fourth time. He had forgiven him for lying about the ghost coming to eat him, but he had felt really scared so he felt James deserved his punishment. He still liked James though, and he had been a lot kinder, he had even fulfilled his promise about telling him about Quidditch. James had gone through all the Quidditch rules with him at breakfast and now Harry couldn't wait to see a real game.

'Get up then Potter,' laughed Lily, who was joined by Harry's giggles from behind a large desk, which shielded him from danger.

James winced as he got up yet again. 'I think you've mastered that spell Evans. Can I have a go now?'

Lily looked at him in mock surprise, 'I think I still need a little more practise first, I don't seem to be flicking my wand right.'

James gave her a wane smile, 'I thought you had forgiven me?'

'I did, but then I found out you had been telling Harry that he was going to be eaten by a ghost. I think you actually need to feel pain for your actions, just to make sure that the message has gotten through to your brain. You're always apologising for jinxing people yet you still do it all over again the next day. I want to make sure that you _are_ actually sorry for hitting Harry. By feeling pain you'll understand what it was like to be Harry...'

'Doesn't that make you as bad as me,' challenged James, feeling slightly rattled.

Lily looked at him indignantly and snorted. 'Don't _ever_ compare me to you Potter. I don't pick on innocent people, especially not children. I'm here to look after Harry and your behaviour towards him has been dreadful from the very first moment you met him. Someone needs to protect him, so if you make him upset one more time –' said Lily raising her wand threateningly.

'Okay, okay,' laughed James nervously, 'I see you don't forgive or forget easily. How about I make it up to Harry personally…I could give him a few flying lessons,' said James thinking quickly.

Lily shook her head. 'No way, you can't take a five year old out on a proper racing broom.'

James smile slipped. 'I wouldn't let him on it on his own, I'd be holding onto him. Anyway, Harry wants to know all about Quidditch, he was really interested in what I was telling him this morning. I'm sure he'd love to know what it's like to fly. It's a sin for a wizard child his age not to know anything about Quidditch, it's not like when he goes back to his aunt that they'll tell him about it. Come on, please let me try and redeem myself.'

Lily looked across at Harry, whose eyes had widened at James's suggestion in excitement. She looked back at James thoughtfully, she could see that he generally wanted to make things right. Additionally, she wanted Harry to have enjoyed his stay at Hogwarts, and now that he was excited at the prospect at being allowed to fly a broom she could not deny him the opportunity without feeling incredibly guilty.

Relenting she replied, 'Okay, but only if Harry really wants to go, and if he wants to get off, you'll let him, right?'

James broke into a smile and nodded, then turned to Harry, 'How about that then Harry, I take you flying?'

Harry nodded instantly with a big grin on his face. 'Yes I want to go flying.'

Lily turned away from James in the context of consulting with someone else a table away, she went to join them, leaving James alone with Harry.

James smiled at him, 'Did you want to go flying tonight then? I could get someone else to come too.'

Harry nodded again, he was thinking back to what Lily had called James. 'My surname is Potter as well,' he said smiling at having something in common with James who was always trying to distance himself from him.

Nodding in recognition James replied. 'Potter is quite a common name to have. I wouldn't be surprised if there were quite a few other James Potter's around.'

Harry nodded slowly, he knew James was correct because his own father was called James Potter. Parents obviously did not stay at Hogwarts because only students and teachers lived here so he was going to have to find a way outside of the castle. Harry looked morosely at the drawing he had coloured in earlier, it was a shame, he would have liked to see them, perhaps Lily would help him find them if he asked her.

'Whose knocked my Sneakoscope on the floor and smashed it?' called the teacher amongst the chaos of falling students.

Harry grimaced, it was his fault, he had accidentally knocked into the teacher's desk when he had walked into the room. Fortunately no one had noticed him do it at the time, but he was sure that he was going to get yelled at if the teacher found out it was him. Harry's first instinct was not to own up, but then his conscience niggled at him making him remember how cross James had been when he had not owned up to being in his room. Resigning himself to the worst, Harry put his hand in the air. He was immediately noticed by the teacher who walked towards him.

'I did it,' said Harry quietly, while maintaining eye contact with the teacher.

Just behind the teacher, James shook his head disappointedly at Harry, he then skirted round the teacher to take a seat next to the boy.

The teacher broke into a big smile and bent down to Harry's height. 'How very honest of you,' and he patted him on the head and walked away.

Harry had barely any time to register surprise at not being told off when James tilted his head to the side to see Harry better. 'Why did you own up to it?' he said incredulously.

'You said that I should own up to things the first night I stayed in your bedroom.'

James frowned, 'No. No. No!' he said raising his voice slightly and shaking his head as though Harry was a lost cause. 'That's only for when you've been caught, you don't own up when they don't know it hasn't got anything to do with you,' he said incredulously as though Harry had missed a major rule.

'James!' Exclaimed Lily horrified, she had overheard what James had told Harry on the way back to her desk. 'Don't encourage him to be naughty. What would his aunt have to say about that?'

James winked at Harry, 'Well he has a lot to learn in the art of breaking rules, he has to start somewhere.'

Lily gave him a withering look, before grabbing her text book and walking back to her group of friends to carry on her discussion.

James leaned in close to Harry and whispered in his ear, 'Look, I'll show you what to do. Can you see that fire crab up there?'

Harry looked up to see what James was referring to. He could see a glass tank which was set on a shelf directly at the front of the classroom behind the teachers desk, there were several old books leaning up against the tank. Looking closely, Harry could see an object which glittered in the light; his first thought was that the animal looked nothing like a crab. What he thought the crab resembled was a tortoise with a shell made out of jewels.

'Is that the teachers pet?' asked Harry curiously, he had never seen anything so exotic.

James nodded distractedly, his friend Peter had just joined them, 'Hey Wormtail, I'm just teaching Harry some lessons in rule breaking.'

Peter's eyes lit up, 'Ah.' he said knowingly.

'Right, Harry,' said James, turning his attention back towards the boy, 'here's what you have to do. Take my wand and point it at the fire crab and say _Wingardium Leviosa._'

'Won't that get me into trouble? I'm not allowed to use wands,' frowned Harry.

Both James and Peter responded by shaking their heads adamantly. 'No way! You saw how the teacher let you off for breaking his Sneakoscope. You're too cute to yell at, you'll easily get away with it.'

'But won't the crab get hurt?'

'Believe me, it'll be fine, it has its own defence mechanism,' offered Peter, smiling knowingly at James.

Considering what they had told him, Harry took the offered wand from James and proceeded to point it at the crab. But he hesitated, would the crab really be okay? The desire to ensure the crab wouldn't get hurt overpowered Harry's desire to be accepted by James, and so he eventually lowered his arm, intending to refuse.

'It won't get hurt, it'll just rise up into the air,' reassured James, 'and no one will see you do it. We're right at the back of the room and people are too busy practicing silencing spells for stunning. Go on, say _Wingardium Leviosa_.'

_Wingardium Leviosa_ mouthed Harry without saying it aloud, he was ensuring that he had the right pronunciation, he didn't want to get it wrong like he did the other day with the mouse.

'_Wingardium Leviosa,_' said Harry confidently.

The result was magnificent. The spell Harry had spoken did not work the way James had said it would, instead the tank exploded in a shower of glass. The students who had been laughing as they stunned their friends, immediately screamed and scattered to the back of the room, where James, Peter and Harry sat, to avoid being cut by the flying glass. Seconds later the fire crab erupted with a jet of fire shooting out of its back end, lighting up the books that had only moments before been resting on the tank that had encased it.

James and Peter could not contain themselves and they broke into a chorus of sniggers, while Harry sat stunned and rigid between them. He dropped the wand which clattered onto the desk and then watched as the teacher jetted water from his wand to put out the fire which was spreading along the shelf.

The teacher eventually turned round having put out the fire and with his crab under one arm, he looked at the back table with an expression of fury, his face turning bright red.

'YOU IDIOTS!' he paused to draw in a deep breath, 'POTTER! PETTIGREW! What the HELL do you think you were doing?'

The teacher had not seen that Harry was the one who had actually held the wand. He had just assumed that the two imbeciles sniggering at the back, who were the usual trouble makers, were to blame. James and Peter's smirks were immediately wiped from their faces; Harry's innocence had saved him from being told off yet again.

'Damn!' muttered James, 'Why couldn't we look cute and innocent like him? Harry don't own up to it this time because he doesn't actually know you really did it. So _you _don't own up, you got it?'

Harry was brimming with excitement as he walked down to the Quidditch pitch. He couldn't wait to start his very first flying lesson. He clenched Sirius's hand harder and began to walk faster pulling him along. In the few days that he had been at Hogwarts holding people's hands was one of the things Harry most enjoyed it showed that people were paying him attention.

What Harry had not noticed while he concentrated on reaching the Quidditch pitch was Sirius looking down at him painfully. He was still embarrassed at having to hold Harry's hand, the boy had insisted on holding it to James's delight and Sirius didn't feel heartless enough to refuse.

Halting his conversation with James, Sirius jerked Harry backwards. 'Not so fast.'

'When are we going to get there? We've been walking for ages.'

'It's over there,' said James, pointing to a place far into the distance where tall posts could be seen visibly.

Harry frowned slightly, and then renewed his effort, it was a long walk for a five year old. 'Can't we just fly over there?' he said hopefully.

'No, it would be too dangerous, according to the school rules we could fly into someone.' said Sirius resentfully.

'Besides,' said James, 'Sirius isn't a very good flyer so we have to wait to get to the pitch where the ground is softer in case he falls off.'

Sirius hit his friend on the arm, while Harry sniggered.

Once the three of them had reached the pitch, James explained to Harry that he would be flying on his broom. It was only now that Harry was having doubts, looking closely at the broom James was holding he realised that it looked like an ordinary piece of wood. He was unsure what he had actually expected but he thought that it would look at least a little bit magical, it certainly didn't look like it could lift someone into the air.

James had noticed Harry's dubious expression and wanted to reassure him. It wouldn't do if Harry came back to Lily looking petrified, he was trying to make things better rather than worse.

'Do you want to see Sirius fly first?'

Harry nodded, he did want to see Sirius fly then at least he could see that they were genuine flying brooms. He watched patiently while Sirius set off into the air, looping in and out of the hoops, it looked incredibly fast. Harry was amazed as to how Sirius could remain on the broom _and_ enjoy himself at the same time.

'Is Sirius part of the Quidditch team?'

'No! But I am, I play chaser,' said James happily, 'Do you want to have a go now?'

Harry wanted to say no, it looked fun but he was too scared, but he realised that he liked James being nice to him more than being safe on the ground, he wanted James to be his friend. If he said no, he knew James and Sirius would laugh at him for being scared.

'Yes I want to have a go,' said Harry lacking enthusiasm which James had not noticed.

'You have to sit on the broom with me first, just so you know what it feels like. Then you can have a go on your own.' As soon as James's back was turned Harry grimaced, that did not sound like a good idea.

Once Harry was seated securely at the front in between James's arms they slowly began to rise off the ground. Harry didn't feel particularly secure, he was flying on a piece of wood. However, this worry was soon replaced by new ones as the ground soared away from his feet and the breeze pushed his hair back. The sensation that he would fall off increased and so he clutched the broom harder in his two hands, determined not to fall off. At the same time James sensed him tense and so tightened his grip on the child in case he fell.

At first James did a simple loop to get Harry used to the sensation of flying and it seemed to have worked. The broom felt sturdy and smooth making Harry feel safer and more willing to try the things that he had seen Sirius perform on his broom.

'Can we go faster James?'

James smiled and complied with Harry's wish, 'Hold on tight.'

A squeal of delight emerged from Harry's mouth as his stomach gave a pleasurable twist. Unfortunately it was short lived as James took an abrupt dive and returned to the ground where Harry got to his feet giddily.

'Now it's your turn on your own, if you want to of course.'

Harry took a deep breath, he wasn't sure about this, flying alone was going to be a very different experience to doing it alone. Yet when he looked up at Sirius and James's faces which were alight with enthusiasm, Harry found that he couldn't refuse. It was the first time they had really included him intentionally, he did not want to be rejected again.

Harry's nerves were not lessened in the lead up to his first solo flight. James had left him with Sirius while he went to collect a spare broom so that they could all fly at the same time. He had said it would be safer that way in case Harry fell. Harry's eyes had widened at this point but James had assured him that he wouldn't be going very high and so it was unlikely to occur.

On James's return Harry's nerves were heightened and he felt sick as James went through the basic grips and turns. Soon enough Harry was on the broom. One last niggling worry assailed him and he couldn't help but ask.

'Didn't Lily say I had to stay with you when flying and not be on my own?'

James frowned 'yeah but your not going on any old broom, you'll be on _my_ broom and it's really good, better than these Hogwarts brooms. Sirius and I will be flying with you, so you'll be fine. Anyway Lily doesn't know what she's talking about when it comes to Quidditch, she doesn't even fly.'

Sirius smiled reassuringly, 'Come on Harry are you going to get on or are we going back to the castle?'

Harry couldn't help but feel that Sirius was making him out to be a baby, he didn't want to look like a wimp. He clambered on to the waiting broom, and took several deep breaths before kicking off from the ground. As Harry rose into the air he felt a calmness overcome him as the wind ruffled his hair once again, he found that it was not so bad as he had thought it would be, the broom was very easy to turn. Yet as he increased in height the broom kept speeding up and then slowing down never quite at the same speed as if Harry was not really in control. Harry soon ignored this when he saw that Sirius and James had been true to their word and were flying either side of him.

'You alright Harry?' called James above the wind.

'Yes,' answered Harry, slightly less audible over the wind.

'Do you want to play a bit of Quidditch then?' he raised a large red ball up which he had been holding. 'Of course we can't play a real game because there aren't enough people but we could play catch instead.'

Harry gave him a nod, he didn't actually feel safe enough to take his hands off the broom to catch a ball, James seemed to expect more and more of him. Harry still felt too shy to say no, James seemed keen to want to show him the sport he loved and he felt rude to refuse him. His own aunt shouted at him when he didn't like the food she cooked, he guessed James would be the same about flying.

'Let's go a bit higher,' shouted Sirius 'It's too low to play here.'

The two boys rose up either side of him, while Harry reluctantly followed, noticing the broom going faster than he wanted it to. Looking down he felt sickened to see that the ground was so far away, he screwed his eyes shut to block out the sickening feeling.

'Oy' yelled Sirius shocked, 'You can't shut your eyes this high above the ground, you'll fall off.'

Harry opened them quickly, the broom jerked in his hands threatening to buck him off.

James looked over at Harry worriedly, 'If you want to get off Harry just say and we can go back to the ground.'

Harry shook his head adamantly and placed a false smile on his lips.

James raised the ball intending to throw it to Harry, while Harry carefully took his hands off the broom and raised them up to catch the ball that James threw out for him to catch. However, the ball fell short of his fingers and Harry too scared to lean forward, missed.

As soon he realised that he would not catch the ball, Harry immediately felt inadequate, he had failed at something else yet again. The ball began to fall to the ground and Harry looked round to see Sirius looking bored and James slightly put out. They thought he was a baby who couldn't even catch a ball! Driven by determination to impress James and Sirius, Harry immediately pushed his broom downwards. He had not really thought through what he was about to do and as soon as he was diving towards the ball and the ground he regretted his decision. He had no idea how he was going to catch the ball and then pull up at the same time. Already he could hear Sirius and James's dismayed yelps of fear.

The further he dived the more the broom shuddered and Harry could feel the loss of control. The ball was gaining nearer but so was the ground. Squeezing his eyes shut Harry shakily took his hands off the broom and reached out, he felt the ball trapped in his fingers and immediately brought it towards him. Opening his eyes, Harry was surprised to see the ground shooting towards him, he gave the broom a pull upwards, but was shocked to find that he was not strong enough to pull the broom out of the dive. Immediately dropping the ball Harry wrenched at the broom without success. The broom bulleted towards the ground and Harry screamed letting go of it.

A blur of black shot towards Harry's side and he felt sharp fingers grabbing onto him and for a sickening second Harry was suspended in the air with only James's hand supporting his upper arm. Several seconds later and Harry was dropped softly onto the ground where he sat up shaking.

James looked as shaken as Harry, 'A—Are you okay' he said as he bent down to catch his breath.

'Yes,' squeaked Harry getting up off the floor, 'I think so.'

James looked up and nodded at him, suddenly he was smiling again. 'I guess that broom was too fast for you, but you made a great catch. Well done' and he slapped Harry's shoulder.

'Yeah that was a fantastic dive' put in Sirius as he jumped off his broom handing James's broom over which he had just caught. 'Has no one really ever taught you to fly before? That was just amazing for a child. I mean you fell off but still...'

'Still, the bright side is that we know your good at flying now,' said James cheerfully, 'You have brilliant reflexes, might have to try and get you on the team.'

Breathing deeply the congratulations the two boys' gave Harry some confidence in himself that he rarely experienced. A grin surfaced on his face, he had finally achieved something he was good at. James and Sirius were actually proud of him, _and_ they had accepted him.

'Can we do it again, but lower this time?'

Both boys' face registered shock, 'No way!' said Sirius immediately.

'Definitely not,' confirmed James, 'that was just too dangerous.'

Harry gave him a frown of disappointment.

James patted his back, 'Come on you know it was dangerous to go on that broom, we'll try and see if you can get one for your own age group.'

Sirius nodded with him, 'Please don't tell Lily that we let you fly it on your own,' he said, painfully aware that he was begging to a child.

'Did it make up for yesterday?' said James smiling into Harry's face.

Harry nodded cheerfully, then frowned, he was thinking about the boy who was really called Severus, and wondering whether he should say what was on his mind. 'Yes, but you have to go and apologise to Severus now.'

'_Severus_!' spat Sirius offended. 'How dare you say Snivellus's real name to us Harry, don't you want us to like you? Snape is a nasty man, he doesn't deserve apologies he's as much to blame for anything as we are, he brings it on himself.'

'Lily said that you shouldn't be nasty to people,' said Harry confused by the conflicting responses to Severus '_and_ that you shouldn't call people names.'

'So that's why you say his real name because you're scared you'll be told off by someone you've only just met,' sneered Sirius, to which Harry responded to by looking at the ground.

For once James seemed unsure of the situation. 'Hey lay off Sirius, he's just a kid.' Harry still looked downcast. 'Look Harry, I helped him out the other day, isn't that enough?

Gathering courage to speak up for himself, Harry shook his head. 'No because you started that fight after that, so you have to make up for that too.'

James rolled his eyes. 'Okay okay, I'll go apologise to _Severus,'_ he said deliberately avoiding his best friend's eye who was looking at him disgusted.

Harry smiled brightly. 'We can go do it now.'

As soon as the three boys entered the Great Hall James craned his neck to search the room. 'Harry I can't find him, I guess we'll have to do it another day.'

Shaking his head adamantly Harry pouted, 'You have to do it now or you'll never do it.'

'Oh alright,' said James through gritted teeth, 'lets go to his common room and see if he comes out.'

Sirius stared at him surprised, 'You aren't really going to apologise to him are you?' he looked slightly worried by his friend's moment of weakness.

'Of course not!' he muttered while Harry looked round for the entrance to the Slytherin common room as if there would be a sign to show him. 'We're just humouring him, if we don't make him happy he might tell Lily that we let him on a broom on his own.'

Sirius winked at his friend. 'Come on Harry it's this way'

There had been a series of worn steps on the way to the entrance of the Slytherin Common room. On the way there Harry could not prevent himself shivering from fear. The place he had found himself in was dark and uninviting, all around him was dark stone walls wet with slime making the corridor cold. What had made Harry most afraid was the actual entrance to the Slytherin Common room. There was a circle of silver snakes surrounding the entrance each with their jaws wide open and tongues poking out gruesomely. It appeared that they had to get this to open before they could get inside.

'See we've come all the way down here and we don't even know the password so we'll have to wait ages for him to come out, and your going to get all scared because its dark and cold,' taunted James, then he immediately felt ashamed as Harry's face fell, he was just a child.

A worried expression overtook Harry. He did not like the dark. He could feel his hope evaporating, but then he surveyed his surroundings he wasn't going to give up that easily.

'No look James we can get in. I don't think you have to say a password there are snakes round the door we can just tell them to open up.'

James and Sirius exchanged a look of confusion before looking back down at Harry.

'No Harry,' said Sirius 'It's a password you have to say, James and I have been in there before for a joke... not talking to snakes,' he said slowly, he was now regarding Harry with hostility.

James nodded and muttered, 'not an experience I want to repeat, do you remember how they reacted last time we went in,' he whistled at the bad memory. 'Come on Harry lets go, it's late I don't think Severus will be coming out.'

'No wait,' whined Harry, James and Sirius had turned their back on him, they were leaving. He did not want to give up that easily, he was unsure why James and Sirius did not understand what he had meant. Talking to snakes was something he was really good at, it had confused him when he hadn't known wizards existed why others couldn't do it, but now people still didn't know anything about it. Turning to the door instead of watching James and Sirius's retreating backs, Harry hissed _open_. He still wanted them to say sorry to Snape but he was also doing it to impress them and show he wasn't stupid.

James and Sirius had heard him, they both stiffened and turned round, they looked at Harry aghast which then turned to disgust. Harry grinned at them but found that they refused to look into his eyes, instead preferring to look at the open hole to the common room.

The grin that had surfaced on Harry's face immediately vanished, he did not feel satisfaction at his triumph, both James and Sirius had looked at him strangely and he did not like it. Ignoring their stares, he turned his attention to the opening to the Slytherin common room. This was not a welcome sight as everywhere still looked cold and unwelcoming. It definitely wasn't as friendly as the Gryffindor common room.

James and Sirius looked at each other resigned to the worst, there was nothing they could do now that the hole was open. They decided it would be easier to do what Harry wanted, so they proceeded to the hole, they would discuss the child's abnormality later. Peering over the wall they immediately saw Snape sitting alone reading a book. Instead of walking into the common room they beckoned him over, they had learned their lesson from last time.

Snape's face immediately looked angry as soon as he saw them, but curiosity overtook him and he walked over to see what they wanted. He came up several steps away from the hole evidently dubious as to why they wanted to tslk to him, he obviously sensed a trap.

'Hey Severus, I just wanted to say I'm really sorry about yesterday,' James muttered and then winced as if the words were actually harming him in some way.

Snape stared at him in shock, his mouth had fallen open, but then caution immediately overtook him. 'What are you up to?' he said narrowing his eyes.

'Nothing, I'm just apologising that's all...well if that's enough for you, I'll be on my way.'

Harry gave Snape a big cheesy grin before running after James and Sirius he did not notice the confused look Severus gave him.

James immediately shot off down the corridor, shocked at what he had been made to do by a _five_ year old child.

Sirius looked sickened and mortified at the same time. 'I can't believe you did that.' He said with a groan of horror, he leaned up against the wall as if he was about to be sick and held his head, shaking it miserably.

'Are you happy now,' said James turning on Harry fury was evident in his eyes and Harry stepped back out of his path. 'I – can't – stand – that – guy. And you –' he said turning on Harry once again, 'What do you think you're playing at talking to snakes?'

Both boys ignored Harry on the way back to the common room, he was thoroughly confused at what he had done wrong. As soon as they stormed into the common room, James tugged Harry's sleeve and brought him to Lily, who was sitting alone doing her homework. She was so engrossed she didn't look up to see their faces.

'Hey! Did you have a nice time flying Harry?' she asked finally looking up. 'What happened!' she said quickly as soon as she saw Harry's miserable face and James and Sirius's disgruntled expressions.

'This kid is weird' said James angrily pushing Harry towards Lily, 'I don't want anything more to do with him, he's a...parselmouth,' he hissed quietly, looking round him to see if anyone had heard.

Harry began to wail in Lily's arms, he was frightened at why James was being so mean, he felt Lily hug him tighter.

Lily looked slightly surprised at the information, but soon composed herself. 'So, who cares? You shouldn't be so mean in front of him James.' She said horrified.

James's eyes were blazing. 'I told you yesterday that it was strange Dumbledore kept him here, well now we know, he's probably a descendent of Lord Voldemort.'

'How could you say that?' said Lily sharply, horror evident in her voice. 'All wizard families are interlinked, even you could be related to Lord Voldemort, it doesn't matter whether he can talk to snakes. Its just stupid people like you who believe that anyone who can is evil. I mean look at you Sirius all your family are in Slytherin, but your not are you. And that's because _you_ chose not to be. You should both be giving Harry the benefit of the doubt. ' she finished, hugging Harry closer to her.

'Don't you get it? Voldemort is out there, killing our families. That kid could be a spy for all we know, you should take him back to Dumbledore...You know what his aunt and uncle are like, maybe that's why their so horrible to him.' He said in realisation 'How much more is he hiding? We don't really know him do we.'

'How could you say that?' whispered Lily her voice thick with emotion.

James looked back at her slightly embarrassed and then turned away.

**AN: Eek I have a feeling some people aren't going to like the ending to this chapter...**

**How to open the Slytherin common room differed a bit to the books, but what I wanted to show was that there could be two possible ways to open it, either the password or through a parselmouth. Not necessarily correct but it was the only way I could get Harry to show that he was a parselmouth since bringing a live snake to the school would seem a bit random.**

**I tried my best with writing the suspense as Harry fell in Quidditch, but I feel I need some improvements. If anyone has any writing tips that can be applied when trying to write suspense scenes I'd appreciate the help.**

**Thanks for the reviews I received for my last chapter!**


	9. Rejected

**Rejected**

Harry woke up early, but he did not feel the familiar sensation of happiness that he had felt the previous three days upon waking up in his four poster bed with his perhaps four friends sleeping near him. Instead he felt miserable and further away from the group than ever. He had, like at home, been rejected by the people who he thought would have been his friends. If only he could be normal then he would be liked, even Lily probably hated him now.

Blinking away the tears, Harry got dressed and slouched down to the common room. He planned to find Professor Dumbledore's office and tell him to make him leave so he couldn't be a nuisance any more. However his plan was not as easy as he had first thought. Lily was sitting down near the fire and she looked up as soon as she heard his footsteps. There was an uneasy expression on her face and Harry felt a sickened feeling consume him.

'I thought you might get up early so I did too. We can go to breakfast straight away if you'd like,' Lily said kindly as she stood up.

Refusing to make direct eye contact, Harry nodded at the floor.

Lily bit her lip anxiously, Harry's lack of response worried her and she had a feeling James and Sirius's words had not bounced off this time. Bending down in front of him she gently rubbed his shoulder reassuringly and prodded his chin slightly so she could look at his face.

'It's going to be okay. James and Sirius don't know what their talking about. I still like you. Being a Parselmouth is nothing to be ashamed of. You should be proud that you have such a talent. Not many people know much about it, so that's why James and Sirius reacted the way they did.'

Harry gave a quick nod and then grabbed Lily's hand ready to be lead down for breakfast. The whole time they went Lily tried to engage him in conversation but her words just echoed into the silence until they entered the hall where they took their seats at the Gryffindor table.

'Look Harry,' said Lily pointing at the food in front of them, 'what would you like to eat?'

Harry shrugged his shoulders and stuck out his bottom lip, there was too much to choose from: cereal, eggs, bacon, he had no idea what to choose.

'Perhaps you'd like some toast with scrambled egg? Okay then you get the eggs, while I butter the toast.'

Feeling slightly more useful, Harry leaned on his knees to get to the top of the table. His fingers could just about reach the bowl and he began to slowly drag it and then pulled it harder towards him. Unfortunately his pull was slightly too hard and the bowl came shooting out of his hand and onto the floor next to him. It had smashed in two and egg spilled onto the floor.

Harry gasped in shock and looked at Lily who was giggling. For the first time his face cracked into a smile and he began to laugh hesitantly with her, until they lapsed into silence.

'You don't hate me for speaking to snakes?' he said shyly.

Lily ruffled his hair in response, 'Of course not and neither does James, I'm sure he'll be very sorry for what he said.'

Harry nodded he was pleased that Lily liked him after all and he hoped that she was right about James, he was still upset by what he had said, but he did hope that he still liked him.

James stirred under his covers, Remus was calling him persistently. He reluctantly turned to give his friend his fall attention.

Remus looked panicked, 'Where's Harry, he's not in his bed?'

James rubbed his eyes sleepily. 'Isn't he? I'm sure he's fine, probably downstairs having a little rebellion, he's not too happy with me you see, I insulted him...slightly,' said James guiltily.

After Lily's admonishment last night, James had thought about Harry's ability in some depth and he had a feeling that he had been in the wrong. Yet he was still not quite ready to admit it, he reasoned that he had a justified reason to react the way he did. The child could be capable of anything, given time, he thought dully. Yet deep down, when James thought of Harry he could not associate him with anything but politeness, he didn't seem to be going along the right tracts if he wanted to be evil, he didn't even know how to be bad.

'Aren't you worried? He might have walked off again and got hurt. I'm going down to look for him.' There was a bang and the door to the bedroom slammed shut.

James groaned he really wanted to turn over and fall back to sleep, but Harry kept appearing in his mind and he couldn't sleep while he didn't know where he was. He knew that his selfishness had got in the way again, but he still felt that the child was consistently trying to annoy him and had gone off just to make him feel sorry for the way he had acted yesterday. James cringed with embarrassment, he didn't know what the matter was with him sometimes.

Sitting up he turned round to face his friend's bed then threw a balled up pair of socks aiming perfectly for the face. 'Get up Sirius, we're needed downstairs.' a groan surfaced in answer.

Slouching down to where Remus sat by the fire as if he didn't care, James tried to conceal his immediate relief to hear that Remus had gone down to the Great Hall and found Lily and Harry having breakfast together. After relief James immediately felt annoyed with himself. Why should he care if Harry was okay? He wasn't his child! He shouldn't even be at Hogwarts, but at home with his aunt.

'Why are you being so hostile towards Harry today?' asked Remus noting James expression changing into annoyance.

'No I'm not!' replied James unable to keep the annoyance out of his voice.

'Yes you are, every time I've mentioned him today you've been really uptight and you go all tense and annoyed.'

James chose to ignore this comment.

'We found out Harry was a Parselmouth yesterday,' said Sirius who had overheard the conversation as he walked over to them.

'Oh,' responded Remus in surprise, 'their quite rare aren't they?'

James eyed him warily, he had noticed the intrigue in Remus's voice and had a feeling his friend wasn't going to agree with his own views about the child's ability.

'But they're also most known for causing trouble...evil. You've heard of Salazar Slytherin and Lord Voldemort haven't you? Both of them are well known for the trouble they've caused.' Spoke James.

Dimly James realised that his argument had no foundation, but he wanted to find at least one reason to support the reasoning behind his outburst he had yesterday. He did not want to feel guilty for picking on an innocent child because that was what he had done. He had bullied a five year old who only came up to waist height.

Remus creased his eyebrows in annoyance, 'What does that matter? Harry is a nice child, there's nothing evil about him. I think you'd have to have a particular temperament to turn out like Lord Voldemort. I haven't even seen Harry have a tantrum while he's stayed here, have you?'

'That isn't the point, he's a cute kid at the moment, they eventually change. You wait till he becomes an adult.' James replied hotly.

Remus narrowed his eyes at his friend, 'You seem to forget the stigma that revolves around werewolves, I suppose you believe this applies to me?'

James gasped in surprise and hurt, 'I would never – no way Remus, you know I don't think that of you, your one of my best friends.'

'I know, so why would Harry being a Parselmouth matter then? He might be a perfectly ordinary child, shunting him might make him take the path you think he's capable of.'

James considered his friend's words in silence, and then reluctantly spoke, 'I've been an arse haven't I?'

Remus nodded back at him unsympathetically.

'Anyway it's like what Lily was saying about my family last night isn't it?' spoke Sirius

James threw his head back and groaned, 'I was really trying to be nice to him, he's had such a horrible life, then that one thing happened yesterday and it just ruined it all. We had such a great time at Quidditch as well. Why can't I be nice?' he said almost pleadingly to his friends as he looked into their eyes.

Both of them shrugged.

'Look what you have to do is try and apologise to him, preferably as soon as you can because you probably hurt his feelings and tell him that you have no problem with his ability.' Said Remus helpfully.

James nodded seriously. 'Yeah Lily has Transfiguration with us this morning, I could try and talk to him then, perhaps offer to play with him or something.'

He got up, 'I'm going to go right now and tell him before class starts.'

Both his friends stared at each other exasperate as James rushed towards the portrait hole.

Unfortunately James was waylaid on his way to get to class early. One of his teachers had insisted on pestering him for a delayed piece of homework. By the time James had managed to escape and arrived at his first lesson he found that the Transfiguration classroom was full and Professor McGonagall had already begun the lesson.

'Sorry I'm late Professor.' James walked towards his seat receiving a glare from Lily and a solemn glance from Harry.

Taking a seat next to Remus, which was directly behind Harry's stool, James looked at the back of the boy's head in pained silence, he was ashamed for being a bully. Taking his attention away from the subject, James busied himself by taking his books out as quietly as possible without disturbing the class.

'Shall I call him now?'

Remus put down his quill, 'No! Do it later after the teachers stopped talking, it'll have more meaning,' he picked his quill up and resumed his note taking. James considered doing the same, but he became impatient, he wanted to say it to Harry now. Balling up a piece of parchment he threw it at Harry's back to get his attention.

The parchment hit Harry squarely in the back making him reflexively turn round to face James. Harry glared at James disgruntled, he was not in the mood to be teased by James and his friends today.

'I'm sorry,' mouthed James across the desk, 'I didn't –'

'Mr Potter I would appreciate it if you listened while I'm talking,' shouted Professor McGonagall, immediately causing James to loose contact with Harry. He immediately ceased to try, he did not want to get a detention.

James sat slightly disgruntled in an armchair in the Gryffindor common room, it was 7 o' clock in the evening and he still hadn't been able to make Harry smile. He had repeatedly tried to apologise which hadn't been accepted, he had even tried tickling, but nothing had worked. He looked over at where Harry sat by the fire with Lily and felt the usual pang of wanting to sit and talk to her, he had even apologised to her and she had grudgingly accepted it to his surprise, yet she still remained decidedly cool with him.

Looking at his watch again James wished Lily would hurry up, Harry usually went to bed at this time and Lily usually took him over for James to take upstairs. He felt that this would be another opportune moment to get Harry on his side when no one was around watching. As if on cue he saw Lily get up and tap Harry on the shoulder, he saw the child shake his head as she told him something and then reluctantly grab hold of her hand. Looking away James tried to concentrate on the conversation his friends were having.

'James,' Lily had reached him, he tried to make it look like he was surprised it was time for Harry's bedtime. 'Harry needs to go to bed now'

James got up, 'Yeah sure,' he held out his hand for Harry to take, but Harry immediately shied away from it and firmly grabbed hold of Lily's arm with his own two hands narrowing his eyes as he did so, determined not to be taken away by James.

Lily looked down amused, 'I think he's punishing you for being mean yesterday.'

'Oh come on Harry I didn't mean it. It was just a reaction, I wasn't thinking!' exclaimed James.

'Well you were mean James you can't expect him to forgive you that easily.' she said seriously with a frown. 'I am glad that you saw sense though and I hope you never discriminate against him again.' In a lower voice that Harry couldn't hear she said, 'I don't think he's that mad really, not since you said sorry.'

James nodded, 'Come on Harry lets go upstairs,' he said trying to inject enthusiasm into his voice.

Harry shook his head adamantly and held onto Lily tighter, who began to gently shake him off. 'Night, night Harry' and she gave him a quick kiss on the top off his head before walking back to her seat. Harry was about to follow, but his arm was grabbed by James and he was lead away. Jerking his arm away Harry followed reluctantly behind him, poking his tongue out as he did so.

Once Harry had been settled in his bed while refusing to look at James the whole time, James left feeling thoroughly put out nothing he did made the child like him anymore.

'Harry please,' he pleaded 'I'm really sorry I didn't mean what I said, I was being stupid.'

Harry looked pointedly away, then suddenly turned back he'd really test James for sure. Just as James was about to walk away from the room Harry made a small hissing sound that slowly got louder, James stopped on his way to the door turned and smiled.

'Oh very funny,' James walked back to Harry and sat next to him on his bed. 'So how do you say "sorry Harry, I'm such a jerk" in Parselmouth?'

Harry shrugged his shoulders, 'I don't know, I have to be near a snake to know. And I don't really like snakes so I'm not going to know.'

James tutted playfully, 'Well that's no use.'

Harry poked his tongue out and James gave him a quick hug in apology which Harry was quite surprised to receive.

Harry moved slowly, gently pushing the bedcovers away from his body. He had been asleep for several hours until twenty minutes previously, James and his friends had woken him. At first Harry hadn't considered anything unusual about this, but as time had passed he realised that they had been getting ready to go out into the Hogwarts grounds. Harry was immediately curious as to what they were up to because students weren't allowed in the grounds at night. The boy's had only just left and Harry felt sure that if he was quick he'd be able to catch them up and follow them.

Carefully he slid out of his bed until his bare feet reached the soft carpet. Quickly he found his shoes and put them on, he grabbed his invisibility cloak and ran to the door with the map firmly clasped in his left hand. Running down the stairs he was just about able to hear the shuffling of three boys walking across the common room. Harry knew these sounds belonged to James, Sirius and Peter who were enclosed under James's invisibility cloak.

The room was dark and Harry suddenly felt anxious, it did not feel like a good idea walking around in the dark when no one knew he was there. Yet he did not want to stay in the common room alone when everyone else was having fun. He was intrigued to see what the boys were up to and perhaps, he hoped, they would let him join in.

He crept carefully behind them determined not to trip on the folds of his cloak. Once in the corridor he relied on the echoes of the boys to guide him out of the castle and into the grounds. The cloak that surrounded James, Sirius and Peter was immediately pulled off. Harry felt the urge to do the same, it was stuffy and hard to manage in the heat of the summer air. But he did not feel quite brave enough to do it yet.

Harry breathed deeply, the trip was growing tiresome, they had made him walk a long way and he hoped that the destination would come up soon. Walking through the grass was particularly hard as the cloak became harder to drag along, he was tempted to pull it off.

Harry blinked in surprise and immediately stopped letting his mouth fall open as he watched the three forms. Whatever he had expected to happen was no where near as interesting as what he had just seen. One second he had been following three silhouettes of three boys, the next he was walking towards a large shaggy dog and one huge deer, the third figure seemed to have disappeared completely. He had never considered the idea that someone could transform into an animal. Stunned out of shock rather than fear, Harry pulled his cloak off and began to run after them before they disappeared completely, he was intending to get a closer look at the weird creatures.

Eventually the dog and deer began to slow down and Harry felt that it was time to put his cloak back on. He was breathing deeply from the long run and was glad of the break. He no longer felt scared of the dark, he was close to the boys and even though they had turned into animals. Harry knew that if he yelled out they would come out to help, he was quite sure that they wouldn't hurt him. Standing a safe distance away so that they wouldn't see him, Harry watched them out of curiosity.

The two large figures had stopped in front of a tree which was thrashing wildly in the air. Its branches were swatting towards the dog and deer but they were just out of reach and it couldn't hit them. What surprised Harry was that the two animals did not appear afraid, instead they were looking intently at the ground where a large rat darted towards the roots of the tree. Suddenly everything stopped and the area was plunged into silence, the tree had stopped moving, Harry narrowed his eyes wondering what had happened. When he finally looked back at the ground he found that the rat had disappeared.

Before Harry could even comprehend the strange tree, the dog and deer had transformed back into boys and they had turned round to look in his direction. Harry quickly checked that he was still invisible and waited patiently to see what they were going to do next.

'Did you smell him?' asked Sirius curiously.

James nodded with a slight smirk on his face, his eyes looked fleetingly around as if he expected to see something.

'Oh well, now he knows our little secret we might as well have some fun,' said Sirius with a big smile on his face. Transforming into the great shaggy dog he made directly for where Harry stood, he pushed him over onto the floor making the cloak fall off at the same time. Harry squealed in surprise as Sirius began to lick his face and snuffle in his ear. Harry tried to prevent the onslaught by pushing his hand deep into the furry chest but he could not push him off.

'Sirius!' called James sounding slightly urgent.

Sirius transformed back into a boy, he gently tickled Harry's stomach. 'Poor you need to have a bath kid, you stink...have some respect for the animals of Hogwarts.'

'Sirius stop messing around,' said James running towards the two figures on the ground. 'There's a werewolf around and he might smell our scents. Harry can't transform, he's in danger.' He pushed Sirius away who had transformed back in his dog form ready to meet anything that would come out of the tunnel and bent down to pull Harry to his feet.

'Look, I'm not mad that you followed us, but you have to get on my back when I transform into the stag.'

Harry looked back at him slightly confused, 'I thought you were a deer.'

James opened his mouth incredulous, but immediately shut it again, it was not the time to lecture Harry on the different species of animals. Standing up properly he transformed back into his stag form and bent low to enable Harry to get a better chance of climbing onto his back. He tolerated the few painful seconds it took for Harry to grab onto him and pull himself on. Slowly, so as not to accidentally jerk Harry off, James extended himself to his full height and began to gallop back towards the castle.

Sirius loped along side his friend, he watched either side of them to ensure that their way was safe from anything that might attack them, however, just as they were halfway there, a light flickered in one of the distant windows and Sirius gave a yelp of alarm. He instantly blocked James's way and nudged him in the direction of the forest. James hesitated for a second, but then gave in, deciding to trust his friend's intuition.

Harry desperately clung to James's neck throughout his haste towards the forest. He could feel himself slipping from the stag's back and was worried that he would be trampled on before James had realised what had happened. Desperately he hoped that they would soon be stopping, but when he looked up he could see large tree trunks towering above them. It was dark out here but Harry could just tell by looking at the forest that it was going to be even darker. He whimpered and held onto James tighter, he had heard stories about the type of creatures who lived in there from other students at Hogwarts.

Sirius slowed down, and Harry saw him disappear into the darkness of the trees. As soon as James followed Harry was plunged into darkness and he was not consoled by the fact that James and Sirius were there to protect him.

James and Sirius were slightly better off as their animal vision helped them see far better than Harry and they were able to dodge tree roots and steady themselves on the uneven ground. Yet even though James gently dodged each root, Harry could feel it harder to hold on every time he had to jolt to avoid something. What was worse was that Harry was now beginning to become accustomed to the dark and he could see eerie outlines, which made him jump every time he saw a branch curled into an unfamiliar shape.

The stag slowed further as it sensed that they had walked far enough into the forest and Harry watched warily around him. He could make out the shape of tree trunks and could hear mysterious buzzing sounds about him. Letting go of James slightly he turned to see what was behind him, but was shocked into stillness as he heard a howl rent the air.

The response from James was immediate, Harry felt him tense and then suddenly jerk into a as near enough gallop he could manage in the forest. Harry who had not been holding on tight enough when they had started off felt his hand slip away from around the stag's neck and he only remained sitting on his back by clamping his legs tight around his body. His heart pumped furiously and Harry immediately tried to grab onto his neck again but found that he could no longer get a purchase on his slippery neck that was slowly growing damp with sweat. The trees rushed past and Harry screams were drowned out by the speed they were going. He reached out intending to grab the antlers which were slightly too far for him. He leaned as far as he could go without falling. Just as Harry managed to grab an antler it was ripped from his hand as he felt a searing pain across his forehead, the feeling of falling registered just before he blacked out and thumped to the ground.

The lack of weight on his back immediately halted James and he turned desperately to see what had happened, he could see a small lump tossed to the side of the path he had just travelled, he trotted over and transformed. Bending down James looked at the small figure in shock, totally unsure what to do.

'Harry?' he said panic making his voice quiver, the child looked as though he was dead.

Gently James touched him and shook him, but there was still no response. Slowly, dreading what he would see, James pushed Harry onto his back so he could see the boy's face. It was dark and he couldn't see what was the matter with him his hand briefly stroked Harry's face before stopping at his neck where James was relieved to feel a pulse beating beneath his skin. It was only then that James realised he hadn't been breathing as a large amount of air escaped his lungs.

'Lumos,' he whispered, hoping not to attract any unwanted attention.

The wand light was shone into Harry's face and James noticed the paleness that had overcome him. But this was forgotten as a shudder consumed him, a large gash which was leaking blood was visible on the child's forehead and James immediately grabbed a fistful of his robes to stem the flow.

'Episkey.'

James watched anxiously as the cut began to heal, he hoped that there would be no lasting damage and that Harry would wake up soon. Looking up now that Harry was out of immediate danger, he realised that they were exposed. Carefully he bent down and picked Harry up in his arms allowing the head to rest on one arm and his legs to rest on the other. It took a few minutes for James to locate a large tree trunk where the roots had raised up from the ground where he and Harry could settle in between them.

'What happened to Harry?' said a husky voice.

James's head snapped up, but he relaxed as soon as he realised that it was his friend Sirius who was standing apprehensively in front of him.

'Hit his head on a branch. I think he's okay just un—'

James halted abruptly, both him and Sirius remained stock still as they recognised the howl that echoed through the forest. There was a moment where they looked fearfully at each other then Sirius transformed and ran towards the sound.

James was likewise spurred into action and he looked fearfully down at Harry who still remained floppy and vulnerable in his lap. Roughly out of desperation he began to shake him awake to which Harry began to stir and look up blurrily.

'Come on get up you need to start walking there's something out there.' He pushed Harry to his feet and then grabbed his hand, looking warily around deciding which direction would be best.

Harry began to whimper in fright. He reluctantly allowed James to pull him deeper into the forest, but he felt woozy and couldn't see where he was walking, the feeble wand light cast by James was not enough for the both of them. James's pull was becoming more urgent and Harry couldn't keep up while trying to avoid falling over, eventually he did and fell to the ground.

James pulled Harry up, anxiously looking through the gaps in the trees, he could hear the growls of his friends. Pulling Harry harder James searched for a place they could hide out, he did not think it wise to go further into the forest with a five year old child. He also wanted to make sure his friends were okay. Harry whimpered again and James decided to stop at another tree with deep roots. The growls were getting louder and James sensed a danger coming.

Picking Harry up, he placed him on the floor and sat down with him circling his arms around the child in an attempt to block out the noise, all to aware that the growls had turned into snarls of anger. He could almost hear sharp claws piercing his friends. Harry let out a moan which turned into a cry. James looked at him worried, he did not know how far a werewolf could smell out a human. He transformed and curled around Harry hoping his animal scent would dampen Harry's own, while Harry desperately chewed at his fingers his eyes wild and anxious.

Yet James could not remain sitting still while his friend risked his life fighting to help them. He transformed back, 'Look Harry I have to go and help Sirius, I don't think he'll be able to cope on his own. You'll be fine here if you just stay hidden and don't move, I'll be back as soon as possible. Just don't move.' He reasoned that without his help Harry would be in even more trouble anyway.

Harry watched James transform and disappear into the darkness. He was left without light, something James hadn't thought of and he felt very scared listening to the noises around him, he did not like sitting still on his own, he wanted to be with James. The seconds passed and the longer he waited the more he was afraid and sure that something would come for him in the darkness when he wasn't looking. His heart beat fast and he was sure that he could hear something rustling near him. Carefully he turned trying not to make a noise, but he couldn't see a thing. His head felt groggy and all he wanted to do was fall asleep, but he was too scared.

A savage howl rent the air and Harry jerked away from the sound he stiffened and then got unsteadily to his feet that had sounded very close! He grabbed the tree for support and peered round the edge to check that nothing was watching him and then move slowly towards the next tree and then kept on going. He wanted to find James, but he did not want to go near the growling so he chose to walk away from it towards the thicker trees hoping that this would lead him out of the forest.

Sirius transformed back into his old self as the wolf ran off towards the whomping willow, he wiped a sheen of sweat away from his forehead and looked at his friend who was leaning on his legs in exhaustion. But suddenly he leapt up and rushed off deeper into the forest.

'We've got to get Harry, Remus might come back, I don't know whether he'll leave us alone or not.'

Sirius followed after him, he looked deeply perturbed, 'I don't know what I'd have done if you hadn't turned up, we so nearly lost control there, anything could have happened.'

James shook his head in disbelief at what had just happened, he looked badly shaken and in need of a rest. Yet he quickened his paste, ignoring the urge to flop onto the floor and lie down, he wanted to get to Harry as soon as possible.

When they came to the trunk that James had left Harry James stopped in shock. 'Where's he gone?' he held his head in disbelief and circled the tree frantically hoping that Harry had moved to a different side.

Meanwhile Sirius called out the child's name in desperation. 'How the hell are we going to find him in here, you sure you got the right place?' he said panicking.

James didn't respond he walked off aimlessly, hoping that Harry would just happen to walk into him. Sirius ran after him grabbing hold of his robes. 'No! Stop James,' he had a brief tussle with him before James fully responded to him. 'We can't just aimlessly walk off, you aren't thinking properly. You need to look for some of his footprints and follow them.'

Hesitantly James nodded and was just about to follow Sirius back when he heard a high pitch scream emitted from directly ahead. Both he and Sirius ran towards the noise, desperately hoping that what ever Harry has met was something they could fight off.

When they reached him they were slightly relieved to see that Harry had not encountered anything big. Yet he was lying on the floor screaming his head off while clutching at his face.

James looked hesitantly at Sirius before taking several short strides to where Harry lay. At first he couldn't see what Harry was yelling out for as his hands scrabbled at his face, but as soon as he bent down he noticed the stick like creatures attempting to gouge out the child's eyes. Gasping in alarm, James aimed his wand at Harry's face and let out a torrent of water the creatures immediately jumped off and hid amongst the trees.

Harry sat up drenched in water, he blinked a couple of times before bursting into tears. James let out a sigh of relief as he noted that there were only a few small scratches that could be easily healed. Kneeling forward he pulled Harry into his arms.

'James I'm going to go and find out where Peter went. You going to be okay getting back to Hogwarts?'

Nodding warily, James patted Harry's head guiltily.

AN: Sorry for taking so long to get this chapter up, life has been very busy lately but the next one will definitely be up by next week. I'm still not entirely happy with this chapter but I've decided to put it up as it is as I've taken long enough with updating.

I've answered all the questions put in the reviews, lol for those who think James is a jerk he will be significantly nicer in the next chapter. One particular question in the reviews was about whether James and Lily would find out that Harry is their child. They definitely will in the next chapter and Harry will find out a few chapters later. If there are any other questions I'd be happy to answer them.


	10. Finding Out

Finding Out

**Finding Out**

The chess board was lying flat on the floor in between James and Harry. It was early in the morning and James had decided to solve Harry's boredom by taking him down to the common room to play a game. His kindness was partly out of guilt at what had happened the previous night. Yet so far, Harry had not uttered a word about what he had seen, and James had a feeling that Harry was scared to think about it. James wondered dully how Lily and Professor Dumbledore were going to react when they found out what had happened. But for once he had decided that he would not threaten Harry into not telling, it was up to him to decide whether he said anything.

Watching Harry collect the chess pieces and gather them into groups like a farm yard, James smiled, but then his expression changed as he thought back to the past week and felt himself blush, he felt ashamed at the way he had acted towards Harry and really wanted to make it up to him. He couldn't believe that Harry was still talking to him after what he had said about him being a parseltongue and the bullying him. Why had Harry even forgiven him? 

'That's not how you do it,' said James kindly taking the pieces away from Harry. 'Look, you put them on the board like this.' Harry watched patiently and then listened to James while he told Harry the rules. Then he helped him make his first move, but Harry eventually told him to stop because it was cheating. 

'I win!' squealed Harry gleefully as his pawn savagely beat a knight.

James looked at him and smiled, then looked at the board exasperated. 'I don't think that move exists, you can't move a pawn diagonally.'

Harry stared at him with raised eyebrows. 'But the little one should be able to fight back too,' he then patted James on the shoulder, 'You're like my cousin Dudley, he doesn't like loosing either. He would have thrown the board though...' Harry trailed off as if he was remembering something unpleasant. 'Lets play this again, I like this game.'

James sighed, he had a feeling Harry just liked watching the pieces fight and winning came as an added prize. Smiling ruefully he began to set up the playing pieces again to Harry's delight. The child kept trying to help by loitering near him and attempting to place some of the stray pieces on the board, but getting them in the wrong places. James didn't mind because Harry was funny to watch when he was excited. They began to play the second round, but somehow James had a feeling he was going to loose.

'So were you a little bit scared getting lost in the forest last night?' asked James

'Uh huh,' replied Harry who was moving a knight purposefully to the other side of the board to attack a pawn. He had become very still and tense as if the conversation was not something he wished to talk about. 

James frowned at Harry's avoidance of the topic, he was 16 and had been scared of what Remus was going to do to all of them in his werewolf form. If he had been scared, then Harry definitely had been too, he had been the one who had gotten lost in the forest and had been attacked by Bowtruckles. James was feeling incredibly guilty and wondered whether Harry would start to have nightmares. For Harry's benefit Sirius and James had agreed that they wouldn't tell Harry that the werewolf had been Remus, they were sure that it would just confuse him and plus he might tell someone and then Remus would have to leave Hogwarts.

'You can say you were afraid Harry. I was too you know, I thought someone was going to get really hurt, I'm glad you were okay though. And you managed to fight off those Bowtruckles pretty well, I couldn't have done better myself. You'll be a really good wizard someday.'

For the first time throughout James's speech Harry looked up and smiled, 'Do you think so?' he said shyly and then suddenly he said more enthusiastically, 'as good as my mum and dad were?'

'Well I didn't know your parents but I'm sure you'll be very good, if you've got talent now you'll definitely have it in the future, I'll have to watch out. And don't forget about how good you are at flying I expect to see you in the Hogwarts Quidditch team, maybe you could try and get you aunt to take you to some practise sessions or something. I'd teach you if your aunt and uncle would let me, once you've got a proper broom for your age group,' he added seriously.

Harry's eyes widened in pleasure, but then he frowned, he knew that wasn't possible. Even if his aunt and uncle agreed which they never would, he lived in the future and James in the past. Perhaps when he went back James would try and find him and give him lessons. This made him smile and he nodded to James's suggestion. Then he felt inside his pocket, James was being nice to him so he should be nice to James and show him his finding, he was sure he'd like it. Pulling the map out of his pocket he pushed it into James's hands. The boys face immediately showed shock.

'Look at what I found James.' He moved closer to sit next to James on the floor and leaned in his lap to point out his name and all the different parts of the castle.

James's face twitched, he hadn't even considered that Harry might have taken the map, they had been looking for it for ages, he couldn't believe that he hadn't checked, he was glad that Harry wasn't the type of child to rip it up. Instead of shouting at Harry for snooping round his room, James decided to congratulate him on his finding, besides Harry was impressed with the map. 

'Wow that's amazing isn't it? I must tell you though that Sirius, Remus, Peter and I are the ones that created it.'

Harry's eyes lit up in astonishment. 

'Look up here, it says the Marauders which is us.' Harry crawled up closer so he was almost leaping into James lap. He pointed to the top. 'What do those words say?' 

'Well we each gave each other a nickname depending on what we transformed into. I'm called Prongs because of my antlers, Sirius is called Padfoot, Remus is Moony and Peter is Wormtail.' Said James enthusiastically.

He noted that Harry hadn't asked what Remus transformed into, perhaps deep down he already knew. Perhaps he didn't want to know the confusing details as to why a werewolf would try to kill his two friends. Or perhaps he was just bored as he had leaned away from James and was swapping one of his castles for one of James knights.

'What are you doing? You can't do that!' exclaimed James incredulously.

Harry looked up at him sheepishly 'But I want the Knight.'

'But that ones black you've only got white pieces.'

Harry ignored him and proceeded to place it where his castle had been. 

'So now I have three castles and you have three knights? I don't think that's very fair, you're cheating.'

'What animal can I change into?' said Harry changing the subject. 

James smiled as an image of a baby stag entered his head, 'Not yet you won't be able to until your learning magic. I'm not really supposed to be doing it myself yet because I have to be registered and I'm not, so I'd appreciate it if you didn't tell anyone.'

'Is it a secret?' whispered Harry happily, glad that he was trusted enough not to tell. 'I promise I'll never tell anyone,' he said proudly sitting up straighter.

James laughed, children were impressed by anything, Harry wasn't even faking it. He looked back down at the map unconsciously his eyes flew across his name and then Harry's. _Harry James Potter_. James frowned slightly, that was strange. He had known Harry's last name was Potter because he had said so the other day, but it was strange he had the same middle name as his own first name. Seeing the two names together on the paper made him feel odd. He recalled what he had said the other day to Harry, he had told him that Potter was a common name. Yet it was still strange that Harry happened to have James as his middle name.

'Your middle name is James?'

Harry smiled and nodded, 'Yes it's after my dad's name.'

James frowned slightly still holding the parchment firmly between his two hands. Was it just a coincidence that Harry was here? That he had been placed with the Gryffindor's? 

Harry leaned in closer to whisper into James's ear, 'Do you want to know a secret?' 

James nodded slowly and distracted, he was still thinking about the names, it didn't make sense.

'I'm from the future.'

James let out a gasp. He looked at Harry's face to see him grinning, he obviously didn't know the significance of the names. 

'I wanted to see my parents, but Professor Dumbledore said that I wouldn't get to and I know why now,' said Harry.

James felt a sickening dread fill him. 'Why is that then Harry?'

'Because parents aren't allowed at Hogwarts they have to stay at home.' He frowned slightly. 'I know Professor Dumbledore didn't want me to see them but maybe you could help me find them.' said Harry in a gentle whisper.

James seemed to have had a revelation. 'What's your mother's name?'

Harry ignored him and carried on. 'It wouldn't be naughty or anything, it would just –'

What is your mother's name Harry?' interrupted James.

Harry stared at James surprised, 'Lily, it's the same name as the Lily that looks after me.' He said rather pleased.

James stared at Harry breathing shallowly, Harry's image of parents was obviously not altered by time changes, he was looking for adults not teenagers. The concept of the past did not make him think that his mother and father might actually still be students. James felt his cheeks flush under Harry hopeful gaze, he didn't know what to say and Harry was looking at him so innocently and trusting. He got up from his sitting position from the floor shaking, and took his eyes away from Harry in horror.

Dark messy hair and bright green eyes...why had he not noticed?

Harry looked surprised and worried, he started to get up too. 'What's the matter James? Are you feeling ill? He grabbed James's arm in order to attract his attention since James seemed not to have heard him. He was immediately pushed off and he saw that James was walking off in the direction of Lily who was coming towards them. Harry's previous contentment was starting to disappear and he wished Lily would walk faster.

James jumped in front of Lily before Harry could even attempt to get there.

'We need to talk.' Lily seemed surprised, her eyebrows converged. 'Okay,' she said slowly, 'what about?' 

'Harry,' croaked James looking slightly petrified and out of breath. 'I'm going to get someone to look after him, then we can go outside.' 

He rushed off before Lily even had the chance to reply, she looked after him bewildered and turned back to gasp as she noticed that Harry had stepped up right next to her. His head was bent right back in order to see her face, he looked serious. She smiled kindly.

'I think there's something wrong with James,' he said seriously.

'You only just noticed after knowing him for a week?'

'No, more than usual.'

'I wouldn't worry about. But I see you've made up with him then, if you're concerned about him.' Lily said surprised, 'And you aren't frowning any more,' she finished cheerfully.

'Yeah,' dismissed Harry. Do you want to play chess? I'm really good, I've won twice out of two games.' He said proudly.

Lily was about to answer when James caught hold of her arm. 'Come on, we have to go,' he said impatiently. 

Lily looked at him exasperated, 'Go where?' 

He did not reply, but continued to pull on her. Harry looked up from the floor where he was starting to set up the chess pieces in the wrong positions. He was watching James with confusion, he hadn't been in such a rush earlier, he wondered vaguely if he had done something wrong.

Lily sighed, 'Harry I'll be back soon and then we can have a game of chess. Have a little practise in the mean time, okay?'

'Yeah Harry, see you later,' called James. 'Sirius will be down to look after you in a minute.'

'Bye,' mumbled Harry, whose concentration had been reverted back to his game rather than to James's antics. 

x-x-x

'Why the hurry?' questioned Lily who pulled back her arm irritably with little resistance from James, who was walking determinedly down the corridor.

Lily looked at him slightly alarmed, 'Where are we going and _why_?' 

'Headmasters,' said James shortly, his mind obviously elsewhere.

Lily raised her eyebrows aware that she wasn't going to get any answers until they had arrived there, so she changed the subject intending to lighten the mood. In her memory she had never seen James so intent and serious, she preferred him when he was light hearted.

'Don't you think chess is a bit hard to be teaching a five year old? You obviously have high hopes for his intelligence' she joked. When James did not respond she changed tact, thinking she had wounded his male pride, 'Aw James, don't go all silent, I think it was really sweet, he obviously likes you a lot.'

But James still did not seem to hear her and she frowned, something really must be bothering him for him not to react. 

Luckily when Lily and James had climbed the stairs to the headmasters office, they found that he was still sitting behind his desk and had not gone down to the great hall to have breakfast yet. When the two youths entered the room he did not look surprised, rather he seemed to have expected them. James ignored the contents of the room instead he looked directly at the headmaster while Lily looked around thoughtfully admiring the precious instruments that lay on the table beside her, she was aching to have a closer look but manners came before her curiosity.

'Hello Lily, James, take a seat.' he said with his usual kindly smile and a gesture to the two seats in front of his desk.

James jumped at the chance and rushed over while Lily looked at him with apprehension, she was unaware what he was here for and she hoped that he was not here to be rude to the Professor. After all he had said back in the common room he had wanted to talk about Harry, she did hope that nothing else about the child had annoyed him. Vaguely she wondered whether he hadn't really been sorry for calling Harry a freak, but then she immediately dismissed it, he had been sincerely sorry for what he had said and Harry had forgiven him. 

'How is Harry doing Lily? Have you enjoyed looking after him?'

Lily smiled warmly. 'Yes Harry's lovely. I've really enjoyed watching him this past week, he's really sweet and –'

'Actually that's what we came to talk about, we want to talk about Harry.' interrupted James.

Professor Dumbledore did not seem surprised by James's harsh tone and he answered as normal. Lily on the other hand looked round at him in annoyance at his rudeness, sometimes she wondered whether he even thought before he opened his mouth.

'What would you like to know James?'

'Is Harry...' James paused all to aware of the effect the answer would have if it matched his own conclusions. 'Is Harry Lily's and mine?' he finished firmly.

Lily's head snapped to the side fiercely while her mouth opened to reject his claims and tell him off for even thinking of such an idea, but she was side tract by the headmaster's words.

'Yes. I'm afraid he is... Depending on whether you look at it as a blessing or not,' he said after a moment.

Lily's eyes widened and her mouth dropped open in shock. Her voice came out in a croak, 'How can that be? That's impossible, we're only 16? And how did you know?' she directed to James, she was looking between the two waiting for them to break into wide smiles, they were certainly making up an elaborate joke, perhaps telling her that she needed to lighten up. Yet it was not funny and neither of them were laughing.

Dumbledore answered, 'Harry is from the future, he was sent here by a stranger, a man. I know that you two are his parents because of who his aunt is, he lives with Petunia, Lily. Incidentally he told me that his mother and father were called Lily and James Potter, I deduced that to be you. I don't think that he will connect you with his parents because Harry will be expecting adults not teenagers, am I right?' 

Lily looked at the ground she didn't know how to process such information, the thought that he was hers had never even crossed her mind. It was not so much the fact that she never wanted children or that she wouldn't want Harry as her son, but it was the fact that she was not ready. She had not even considered the options yet, she was still at school, she didn't even have a job. 'So – so that's why you gave him to me?' she said slowly, to which Professor Dumbledore gave her a nod. 

Thinking hard she answered shakily, almost trying to convince herself of the evidence that might support what Dumbledore and James were telling her, 'I guess he does have my eyes and... he does look like James, his hair and face,' she said reluctantly finding it hard to accept. 

'Why do we die?' asked James bluntly.

'I do not know James. It is unfortunate that such an event has happened, but at least you have got to know your son and perhaps you can curtail events that occur in the future. But I suggest that you do no dwell on things that are yet to come.' he said sadly. 'Things may happen differently now that Harry has come and you have met him.'

'What's going to happen to him now?' 

Dumbledore smiled dimly, 'He will go back to his own time, today. I know of a spell that could send him back. I have been putting it off for a day, but now I think it is time for him to leave.'

Lily nodded. 'How are you going to do it? Will he be okay? I mean, he'll get back to his aunt – I mean Petunia – without getting hurt? He'll be protected too won't he, to make sure that nothing else happens to him?' 

'Well it's quite simple, just one incantation and then Harry has to think of his destination, his home with his aunt and the year that he is going to. Don't worry I will see to it personally that he'll be protected, I will be waiting for him to arrive at the other end.' 

Both Lily and James looked relieved. Lily smiled at the headmaster, glad that he was looking after Harry. Personally she could not think of anyone she'd trust more, he had so much experience, Harry would be safe. 'Well I think James and I should leave, get our thoughts together and say goodbye to Harry.'

Dumbledore nodded, 'Please do not tell Harry what you know. It will upset him and he will not want to leave, he is too young to understand.'

x-x-x

Lily and James looked at each other in horror as they traipsed down the stairs that lead away from their headmaster's office. Neither had the courage to look at each other, both shocked at the information they had just heard. 

'I have a son with you?' questioned Lily in disgust.

'We die.' said James croakily.

It took a few moments for this statement to sink in, and then Lily stopped. She grabbed James's robes at his elbow to make him stop too. They looked into each others eyes for the first time since they had heard the news, and they both saw each others fear mimicked in each others eyes. 

'James…I don't know how we get together, but…' said Lily haltingly and taking a deep breath she carried on 'W— what really matters is Harry. I – I don't know whether you'll agree with me, but I think he's a lovely child and I do _not_ want him to grow up without a mother and father. I don't see him as my son yet, not properly, it's been too quick, but I'm sure that in the future I'd love him more than anything.'

James looked at her, and gave her a weak smile. He was feeling scared, but he knew that he could never walk away from Harry, even though he had trouble warming to him, he was his child and he didn't want him to grow up without a dad. 

'You're right,' said James, 'we're going to have to do something. Now we know that we die in the future when Harry's little we can try and prevent it.' 

'But we don't know how we die,' whispered Lily, as if only whispering it would not confirm it as true. 

'It doesn't matter, we'll think of something. Just don't tell anyone what we heard, okay?'

Lily tutted, showing things were beginning to go back to normal, 'I know! I was thinking more about doing something now, immediately.'

'What! How will we do anything now? Hide Harry away and refuse to let Professor Dumbledore send him back to the future?'

'Not exactly,' said Lily modestly 'We just delay the time he goes back to and his destination.'

James looked at her incredulously, wondering whether she was serious, he let out a nervous laugh. 'Come on, lets go back to the common room.'

Lily stared thoughtfully at him and then nodded, she had decided on what she would do, James could join her if he wanted to or she would do it alone.

Slowly they descended the stairs, James felt tense and wanted to loosen the situation between Lily and himself. Mixed with his fear and confusion was happiness that he and Lily actually got together, he hoped that they had had a proper relationship and not a one off. 

'Hey Evans what did you mean by _"I have a son with you"'_ he mimicked in a mocking voice.

Lily stopped and glared at him. 'Just when I thought you were growing up, being all sweet with Harry this morning.'

The smirk that had appeared on James's face immediately slid off, 'Hey I was only joking,' he said anxiously, 'you know just to loosen the –' he stopped abruptly seeing Lily's glare turn into a small smile, despite her fooling him rather than feeling embarrassed he couldn't help but smile back. The circumstances were tense enough but he just couldn't resist, and he wanted to look forward to at least something. 'So this I hate James campaign is it all an act? Do you really fancy me?' 

Lily looked at him with a thoughtful expression, contemplating whether she should reveal her true feelings. 

'I – I suppose I don't dislike you completely. I think you're all right when you aren't acting immature and not being arrogant,' said Lily blushing and looking at her feet. She looked up to see a big grin on James's face and a glint of triumph in his eyes. 

As Lily swished her red hair over her shoulder and carried on progressing down the steps, James couldn't help but pull his fist in triumph, (he wasn't quite grown up yet). She hadn't exactly complimented him, but he could definitely sense that she was still withholding some of her true feelings, if he approached her slowly she might just go out with him. Well Harry was proof of that, although this thought brought him back to reality that he had a son. He wasn't sure whether he was grown up enough to cope with that. 

On entering the common room, both Lily and James found Harry being teased by Sirius, who was sitting in an armchair by the fire with his arm held up straight over his head holding one of Harry's chess pieces. He laughed, goading Harry who glared at him obviously not finding the game as amusing as Sirius who was clearly having fun.

'Hey give it back. Give – it – back' Gasped Harry in between jumping up and down in an attempt to grab the knight, which was way out of his reach.

The scene was halted by Lily – who had walked up behind Sirius – grabbing Sirius's arm and yanking the knight from his hand. 

'What?' Yelled Sirius in surprise, and turned round to look up to see Lily glaring down at him. 

'Awww you ruined the –' Sirius abruptly stopped having seen James's face, he quickly looked back at Lily and saw that he had mistook her glare and she was really just frowning, looking grim. 

'What's the matter with you two?' said Sirius his smile dropping off his face.

'Harry has to go back home,' muttered James, while Lily bent down to give Harry his knight.

'Oh right,' replied Sirius looking slightly downcast.

Harry not having paid attention to the adult conversation took back his toy and resumed playing with his makeshift farm. 

'Look James, I've found a much better game,' he said pointing at his farm, 'It has no silly rules and it's much more fun. Do you want to play?'

James smiled, 'Nah its okay, I think it's more of a one player game,'

Harry shrugged and carried on.

James looked down at him, deep in thought. He was finding it strange to think that Harry was _his_ child, he still wasn't entirely sure of his feelings. However, he knew that he was only 16 and it had just been sprung on him, he was only just becoming an adult himself. He did know that in the future he would do anything to protect Harry. Now that he looked at him properly he could see himself in Harry, his nose, his face structure and in particular he had inherited James's messy hair, he smiled at this. Harry looked up and smiled at him from his position on the floor. James noted his shyness and anxiety and was hoping that he and Lily would make sure that he came to no harm. And more than ever he wanted to take back what he had done the past week it had been his one chance with his child and he had blown it. It was more important than ever that they did not die, he didn't want Harry to grow up thinking his father was a mean bully. 

Lily broke the silence, 'Harry, Professor Dumbledore has found a way for you to go home.'

Harry turned to face her and shook his head, 'No, I want to stay here!' he said adamantly.

'But you want to go and see your aunt and uncle don't you, they'll have missed you?' Questioned Lily nervously.

Harry paused to question this for a second, but decided that he had been more happy in the pass few days than he had ever been, he hadn't even thought about missing home. 'I like it here. I want to stay here.' Reaffirmed Harry and then he dissolved into tears.

Lily gave James a fleeting look of worry, then bent down and opened her arms to embrace Harry. He crawled over, with tears streaming down his face. Pulling him onto her lap Lily made comforting 'shhhing' noises. Harry buried his face into the soft material of her clothes, he had finally found comfort. Meanwhile, Sirius and James looked at each other awkwardly unsure what to do, a joke did not seem appropriate right now. 

AN: Thank you for all the reviews. Don't worry, Harry going home in the next chapter will not be the end of the story, there are at least 3-4 more chapters to go.


	11. Leaving

**Leaving**

It was the first time that Harry had seen Lily in the boy's room, but it was not a happy occasion as Lily was here to help him pack his clothes. He was pleased that he could show her his room but she had not seemed all that impressed by the room. He thought it was a bit of a mess, but the beds were really big and it was nicely decorated.

'Look Lily this is where I sleep, it's a _much_ bigger bed than what I have at home,' Harry said impressively.

Lily smiled at him wanly. 'Harry, that's not going to work! You know that you have to go home, everyone will have missed you.' She bent down to collect Harry's clothes from the floor to pack away in his trunk. 'Honestly, James has not been teaching you very good habits, you're supposed to put things away after you've used them.'

Harry nodded at her guiltily and reluctantly joined her at his trunk and attempted to fold one of his T-shirts, it was immediately removed from his grasp once Lily had finished her pile. He wondered whether he should tell her that these weren't actually his things so there was no need for her to pack them, they would not be going with him. But he decided to keep quiet, the longer it took to pack the more time he had with Lily.

'Will I ever get to see you again?' asked Harry shyly, while he awkwardly propped himself against the bed fiddling with the thread of his duvet cover.

Lily frowned and dropped the garment she was holding. Approaching Harry slowly, she bent down to his level and put her arms round him. 'I don't know Harry, hopefully I will. If I can, I definitely will, but if I don't see you again it won't be your fault, I might just not be able to.'

Confusion clouded Harry's eyes but he remained silent. Lily responded by pulling him onto her lap into a cuddle.

'Harry I want you to listen to me very carefully. Professor Dumbledore will cast a spell which will take you back into your own time. You'll have to help him do this by thinking of the year that you live in which is 1985 and the destination which is your home. But I don't want you do this okay?'

Harry looked up at her curiously, this was the first time Lily had told him to break a rule. It was usually James that told him to break rules, not Lily!

'What I want you to do is think of the year 1979 instead, and then think of James and I which will be your destination. Do you understand?'

Harry slowly nodded his head, 'Why shouldn't I listen to Professor Dumbledore? What does destination mean?'

Lily smiled, 'because hopefully if you listen to what I've told you, then we'll get to see each other again.'

Harry's eyes lit up and he suddenly seemed full of energy, he turned and hugged Lily around the neck and she hugged him back, she let out a small gasp as she looked up. James was standing in the doorway watching them, he had an expression on his face which told her that he had heard what she'd told Harry to do and he did not look pleased.'

Lily pulled away from the hug and stood Harry back on the floor, 'Why don't you go and say goodbye to Remus, Sirius and Peter?'

The beginnings of disagreement were surfacing on Harry's face, he still obviously did not want to leave.

'Remember what I just told you,' Harry considered it for a few seconds then he turned round, passing James who patted his head, and went downstairs.

James walked further into the room staring at Lily in disbelief. 'I can't believe you're telling Harry to do something different to what Dumbledore is going to tell him. It could go wrong, he doesn't know the proper destination. I think we should wait and think of something else. You can't meddle with time.'

Lily looked at him sternly, she had not lost any of her modesty, 'He'll be fine, it _will_ work. If we wait any longer then it'll be too late and we won't have any further information than we have now. If we see Harry again before he's born we might be able to protect him. We'll have completed school and we might know of how to prevent us dying.'

James shook his head and twitched his mouth sympathetically, 'I don't see how.'

'James I don't want Harry to live a horrible life. My sister's cruel, I can't believe that she's the same person. I don't want Harry being brought up by someone like that.'

James looked as though he was seriously considering her words. 'Do you have a very good relationship with your sister now?'

There was a long pause before Lily answered, 'We get on okay, but ever since I came here to Hogwarts she's gotten more distant, not returning my letters...she's not that bad though,' she said quickly seeing James making assumptions. 'She is generally a nice person...I think she's just a little bit jealous. Maybe if I try and make things up to her, things will be different in the future for Harry.'

'Why, if you have a bad relationship with your sister, do you think Harry ended up with her when we died? Why didn't he end up with one of our parents or our friends?'

Lily suddenly looked horrified, 'You – you think that our parents die in the future?' said Lily biting her lip, unable to comprehend the idea.

Nodding slowly, James replied, 'My parents only ever had one child, but they would have taken in a grandchild without a doubt. Harry has never mentioned any other family members or anyone else who looks after him other than his aunt. He doesn't even miss anyone from his own time, that's not normal for a child.'

'I suppose, I don't want him growing up without being loved...or being a squib.' He posed as an after thought. 'Wonder how he became a parseltongue? Oh God what if he becomes a Slythe—'   

Lily stiffened and gave James a piercing look. 'Well then, that just decides it for you, we have to go through with my plan. You've been horrible to Harry from the first time you saw him and you might have permanently damaged his feeling, think how he'll feel in ten years time and works out who we really are, he'll think that you hated him.' said Lily determinedly.                      

James paled and shifted guiltily on the spot, after he had acted towards Harry he had no real right to question her on her plans. Also he n_eeded_ to make up for the damage he had caused and the thought of it made his stomach turn, he'd rejected his own son for being a parselmouth. Attentively James posed his next thought, 'Lily, why does he not recognise us? I know we look younger but why hasn't Petunia showed him photos of us?'

'When I see her, I'm – I'm --' she broke off furiously.

'Going to be nice to her,' offered James.

'You're right, we have to change things. Harry has to come to us and not Petunia, you agree?'

James looked at her uncomfortably, 'You sure that it'll work? I don't want him to end up all on his own with no one to help him'

James and Lily reemerged in the Gryffindor common room to see Harry being spun round in the air by Sirius.

'That's probably why Harry doesn't live with him,' muttered Lily slightly fearful to James, who smiled.

'Sirius, do you think that's entirely safe? You could drop him, I know he's small but he still weighs quite a bit.' called James.

Sirius rolled his eyes before putting Harry back on the ground, who wobbled and almost fell, but Sirius grabbed his shoulder to steady him and smiled guiltily at Lily who rushed over and sat Harry on a chair.

'Well everyone, it's time for Harry to leave so now is the time to say goodbye' said Lily, intending to get everything over as soon as possible.

Sirius looked slightly upset, only recently had he realised how much fun it was having Harry to tease. He muffled the child hair and said his goodbye. 'Maybe I'll see you around Hogsmeade someday. If I do remember to ask me to buy you some sweets from Honeydukes.'

'I'm glad we got to meet Harry and hopefully we will meet again in the future,' said Remus giving his hand a shake which Harry enjoyed because it made him feel grown up.

Grasping hold of Lily's hand, Harry waved a final goodbye to the group. A gloomy expression was plastered to his face as James and Lily lead him out of the common room. 

'That will probably be the last time that you'll be in there until you go to Hogwarts yourself,' said James trying to keep the situation cheerful by reminding Harry that this would not be the last time that he would be at Hogwarts.

Harry smiled up at him as they walked towards the headmasters office, 'Do you think I'll be in Gryffindor then?'

'Definitely! You have loads of courage, all those little excursions on your own, going so high on a broom when you're only five and last night' said James proudly.

'What happened last night?' said Lily curiously.

James widened his eyes in shock realising he hadn't been monitoring what he said, 'Oh nothing, just Harry being alone in the dark was very brave of him, he erm didn't have the curtains open for once.' He clapped Harry on the shoulder, 'Well done, your aunt will be so proud of you, bet Duddley isn't as brave?'

Harry smiled up at James while Lily gave him a smile too, she seemed content with this explanation and as soon as she looked away from Harry, James shared a significant look of worry with Harry.

'It doesn't matter what house you're in anyway Harry, it's whether you're happy in it.' Said Lily reverting back to the previous subject.

'So it wouldn't matter whether I was put in Slytherin?'

James stiffened slightly but he did not answer, Lily glared at him and answered Harry's question, 'Of course not, if that's where you wanted to be that would be fine.'

James seemed slightly miffed at Lily's acceptance, but he did not challenge it.

'Look there's the gargoyle,' pointed Harry, dragging his feet more slowly so that they didn't get there any faster.

'We'll say our goodbyes out here, so that Harry doesn't get upset upstairs before he leaves. I'll go first, then go tell Dumbledore that we're ready while you say your goodbye,' whispered Lily.

James nodded and walked off to the side to allow Lily time with Harry alone. She immediately bent down to look into his face immediately seeing his green eyes the same colour as hers, she remembered mentioning this on the very first time she had met him. She wondered whether when she really had him whether this would be he first thing she noticed or his messy hair.

'Well Harry it's been nice meeting you, I've enjoyed looking after you and hopefully I'll see you in the future.'

Harry nodded he remembered what he was supposed to do, 'I remember the year,' he said happily, '1979'

Lily smiled at him encouragingly, 'aren't you so brave,' and she gave him a huge. When she drew away, Harry thought he could see a tear run down her cheek but perhaps he had seen wrongly because when she looked again she looked fine.

'I'm going to go and tell Professor Dumbledore that we're ready while you say good bye to James.'

Once Lily had disappeared behind the stone gargoyle the corridor descended into silence. James and Harry looked at each other awkwardly both unsure what to say. It was James who made the first move he bent down to Harry's height.

'Look I know I haven't been that friendly towards you this past week but I want you to know that I do like you, I'm just a grumpy old git.' Harry giggled at his swear word. 'To make it up to you, I want you to have this,' James took out of his pocket the Marauders map.

Harry gasped, 'But I thought you made it?'

'I did but I want you to have it, you know to remember me by just in case you never get to see me again.'

Harry looked at it excitedly and held it as if precious he had never got such a nice gift before.

'Look there are secret pathways, one even goes to Honeydukes.' James traced it with his finger, 'Sorry I never got to take you there, you'd probably have liked it.' He pointed out the other tunnels, 'When you come to Hogwarts I give you my permission to use them. You know have a little bit of fun. Don't get caught though.' Said James as an afterthought.

Harry grinned and James smiled back mischievously, 'We'll make a marauder out of you yet.' And then he leaned in and gave Harry a hug.

James was pretty sure that his friends wouldn't like it, but he wasn't going to tell them, they thought the map had disappeared. Besides they might be alive to tell their children about the secret pathways, he might not be. Anyway Harry might share it with them as well, he seemed that kind of child, must have got it from Lily.

'Come on then,' James held out his hand for Harry to hold on to and they both took the stairs to the headmaster's office.

Harry stood in the centre of the room with the invisibility cloak clutched by his side, Lily had given it to him while the headmaster had made his preparations. He knew exactly what he was going to do, and as soon as Professor Dumbledore muttered his incantation he looked up at Lily and James and disappeared.

AN: Sorry for such poor writing in this chapter, changing the perspective from so many people in one chapter is definitely not a good way to write. But I wrote this quite quick and just wanted to get the chapter up because I haven't had a new chapter up in ages. There are at least two chapters left to go, and the next one should be up in two or three weeks time.

Thanks to everyone who reviewed my previous chapters. I think there are some people who I didn't get to write back to, so apologies to those who did not receive a reply to a question they asked me.


	12. Mummy and Daddy

**Mummy and Daddy**

Harry's eyes remained wide throughout his journey and the last sensation he felt was falling into a heap onto a soft landing. He tentatively opened his eyes and found he was in a dark room. Harry gulped and looked down to find he had landed on a bed, there were two figures nestled inside and Harry felt a jolt of fear shoot through him as he realised that he was sitting on one of the figures. The effect was immediate, Harry screamed causing the person beneath him to sit up abruptly. while the figure he had sat on mid rift abruptly. The gasped as he looked into the small boy's face. However, Horror was soon replaced with a warm smile and a chuckle. The stranger grasped Harry's arm pulling him towards himself.

'Aw Harry don't you recognise me, stop crying and look at me.'

The howls slowly ceased as Harry noted the friendly voice, but sobs still racked Harry's small frame, he clearly did not recognise the man who was pulling him into a cuddle.

Small hands began to push him away and James Potter found a teary face looking up at him causing him to frown. He turned to find that his wife had shot up to see what the screaming had been about, she looked perhaps more shocked than he had done and she sat staring into Harry's face.

'I think we have a visitor,' said James with some amusement.

Lily smiled reassuringly although she looked quite unsure what to do, which James considered was something quite rare, he looked back into Harry's face who clearly had not even recognised Lily. James took on a mocking face and stuck out his bottom lip to mimic Harry's. Harry obviously did not find this amusing as James was repeatedly kicked and punched by small fists and feet.

'Hey!' said James sharply he held the child at arms length and swung himself out of bed holding Harry away from him in the air.

'Stop it, its me James' he dumped Harry on the floor where he stood looking vulnerably up at him and then to Lily who had regained composure and had rolled to James's side of the bed. She held her arms out to him.

'Don't you recognise us Harry? It me, Lily and that's James. You've travelled to 1979 like I told you to do.'

James and Lily looked at him curiously while Harry was obviously having a furious battle inside his mind. He did not seem to like what he had heard and James was sure that Harry was unsure of why they looked so much older than they had appeared at Hogwarts.

Confusion overtook Harry's face and he began to shake his head adamantly and he stepped backwards, away from James. 'No' he said quietly, then he began to shout it ' no, no ,no ,no!'

'What are you saying no for?' asked James, irritation starting to show in his voice. He made a quick grab for Harry and pulled him closer so that Harry would be able to see his face in the dark. 'Look same features,' he pulled him towards lily, 'look same Lily.'

'See it is us, we only look older because we're in the future now.' reassured Lily.

Harry glared at her mistrustfully and began to struggle against James's grip who let him go. He ran towards the door and out into the lit hallway, slamming the door behind him.

James and Lily looked at each other shocked. 'Okay I wasn't expecting him to turn up today, but I would have thought he'd greet us with a cuddle at least,' said Lily in confusion.

James shrugged his shoulders exasperated. 'We should go after him. Do you have any idea what the plan is to do with him now? We've no idea what we've got to do more than we did several years ago.'

'I—I don't know James. Let's—let's just go and find him.'

James looked curiously at his wife as she pulled on a dressing gown and walked out of the room, she was not behaving like he had expected her to. They had mentioned Harry's arrival repeatedly and she had been excited each time and now she was hardly showing any enthusiasm at all. He was sure that she would have grabbed hold of Harry even though he was struggling to get away from them. It could be Harry's reaction towards her he reasoned, but it wasn't anything personal he thought gloomily as he walked out of the room to help her find Harry.

James emerged squinting furiously as light flooded into the hallway. He stretched tiredly cursing that things couldn't have been a bit easier to deal with. He signed and crossed the hallway to push open a door to the spare room.

'Any luck,' he asked while standing in the doorway watching lily search the wardrobe.

Lily smiled, 'nope not under the bed or in here.'

James left and walked to the top of the stairs. 'Harry, come out we're not going to hurt you,' He shouted. 'Although I might hold you upside down if you don't come out soon,' he muttered to himself.

'James!' screeched Lily from the spare room.

'Joke,' said James holding up his hand with a guilty smile on his face. Turning away from his wife James walked down stairs and once he reached the living room he immediately recognised a small pair of feet under the sofa. Careful not to creek the floorboards he walked around another sofa and knelt down by Harry's feet. Smirking, James grabbed the small feet, causing a yelp, and he pulled the child along the dark floorboards. Harry immediately began to struggle as James picked him up.

'mwah, mwah' laughed James, kissing Harry repeatedly on the face while he kicked and screamed.

James looked up to find Lily watching over them a faint smile twitched on her lips. James sat down with Harry in his arms and Lily walked over to sit next to them. James started to tickle Harry who redoubled his efforts to get away by kicking his small legs harder.

James smiled at Lily who cocked her head to the side and raised her eyes.

'stop it, he clearly isn't finding this very funny right now James. He needs a cuddle and sympathy, he's just found out that the people he was with a little while ago have turned into adults. That's a bit of a nightmare.'

Creasing his eyes in disagreement James stopped and carefully transferred Harry onto Lily's lap while keeping a firm hold of his legs. He personally thought that Harry would soon crack with just a little but of humour. But he soon changed his mind as Harry began to calm down when Lily gently smoothed Harry's hair. Harry glanced into their expectant faces with a scowl on his face, his eyes flickered between the two every so often.

'You didn't expect us to look the same did you Harry?' said Lily gently.

James beamed and ruffled Harry's hair, 'You going to give us a smile or what?'

Harry buried his head into Lily's dressing gown in response while James looked affronted.

Lily smiled at her husband sympathetically, 'I think it'll just take some time. Maybe we should start breakfast?'

x-x-x-x-x-x-x

James stared apprehensively as Harry bit into his toast. He was realising for the first time that he was directly responsible for keeping the child safe and happy. So far he was not doing a very good job of being a father since his child had only kicked and screamed at him. The silence carried on a James wished that Lily would come back down from getting dressed.

James jumped out of his thoughts in surprise as Harry spoke for the first time.

'You look a lot older now you're an adult,' he said shyly.

James smiled at him, 'Well it has been about four years since I last saw you, so I suppose I have changed quite a lot. Lily and I no longer go to Hogwarts. We are still the same people, you can trust us,' James reassured.

Harry smiled just as Lily walked into the kitchen.

'Oh good, are you feeling better now?' asked Lily.

Harry nodded and Lily bent down to talk to him.

'Look I have to go and speak to Professor Dumbledore about you being here. James and I love having you here but you need to go back to your own time. The Dursley's will be worried about where you are.'

Harry stared at her and shook his head. 'No they won't care. I'm not scared anymore I want to stay here with you and James. I'm not scared, honest.' He repeated and looked at James for support.

'Lily's right. You do need to go back to your own time.' He got up out of his seat and followed Lily out of the kitchen.

'I know he's got to go back, but why are you acting so quick on all this? We could leave seeing Albus till tomorrow, what's the point in sending Harry back straight away?'

Lily sighed and looked at James with a pained expression, 'I just have to get it sorted now, okay.' she left without waiting for James to say goodbye.

James shook his head in dismay. Why was Lily acting so distant? They had only one day with Harry and she was in a hurry to get rid of him.

'Can we go flying James?' asked Harry shyly when James re-entered the kitchen.

The feelings of anger at Lily's behaviour lessened when James realised that Harry was finally talking to him. However, his pleasure quickly passed and James shifted uncomfortably in his chair. 'Hmmm I don't know whether that's such a good idea.'

James forehead creased in concern as Harry's face fell. Fearing he was a bad father he tried to make it up to him. 'I mean it was quite dangerous last time, I've only got a racing broom and that's not really very safe for a beginner. We should probably do something more interesting for someone your age.'

Harry's expression did not change. James stared anxiously at him, when had he got so serious, surely he was going to be a boring father?

'How how about doing some painting?' James asked nervously.

Harry's face immediately flushed with excitement and he jumped down from the table ready for James to show him where the paints were.

James looked at him in surprise, but brightened. 'I didn't mean right away, I've got to finish my breakfast first'

'Oh!' Harry stood next to him and watched as James took a bite from his toast. James stared at him from the corner of his eye amused and he gently pushed him away. 'stop it.'

'Are you nearly finished?' said Harry taking James's plate off the table. James quickly snatched it back and took the last piece of toast, while Harry jumped up and down in excitement. 'I never get to do painting he puffed, Dudley always screams when I borrow his brush. He's not very good at sharing,' he said dully.

James rubbed his sons shoulder sympathetically, while a surge of anger blossomed in his chest. 'Well I promise to share my paints.' and he jumped up, leaving his plate on the table. He grabbed Harry's hand and led him out of the kitchen and into the living room. Harry stared anxiously back at the kitchen table as the door shut behind them.

'That's dirty leaving your plate on the table,' said Harry seriously.

James jumped in surprise, 'Are you going to tell on me then?' .

James brought out the paint gear and laid it on the living room floor. He watched as Harry dabbed paint onto the paper. This might be the last time he would do anything with Harry before he went back to his own time. What if Harry never realised that James was his father? Harry looked up and smiled pointing at his picture where he'd drawn three people. James smiled back, would it matter if he told Harry who he was?

'Harry do you remember me at all from your own time?'

'No'

'Do you remember anything at all when you were a baby''

Harry screwed up his eyes in concentration.

'I guess... I remember a green light. Like a flash and the pain here' he stood up and walked over to James intending to show him his forehead, but tripped before he reached him.

James immediately picked him up and was startled to see tears brimming in his eyes. Harry held his head and squashed his face into James

'Shhhhhh,' whispered James, removing Harry's hand away from his head and kissing the bump, 'Look I just gave you a magic kiss, it should be all better now.'

Harry looked up into James' face and a watery smile emerged on his lips. James carefully wiped away the tears that had streamed down his cheeks.

'James are you my Dad?'

It had been the last thing he had expected and James blinked several times before he replied, 'Yes,' and he hugged his son closer to him, 'yes,' he repeated.

Pushing himself away from James to loosen the embrace, Harry looked back into James's eyes, which were full of concern. He was smiling 'And is Lily my mum?' James nodded and Harry's smile widened, but suddenly it fell. 'Why didn't you say? Is it because you don't like me? Is that why you don't look after me in the future?'

James vehemently shook his head 'no, no, nothing like that, we really are dead in the future, we didn't tell you who we really were because we didn't know how you'd react. We do love you, very much. How did you know? Was it because of my first and second name?'

'Yes, I realised that you lied when you said that there are lots of Potter's. I didn't think you could be my dad because you were still at school, but now you're big. So now I know does that mean I get to stay here,' said Harry his eyes lighting up, and then he hugged his dad not noticing that his father had not answered his question and that he was looking grim.

Harry looked shyly up at his father, 'Can I call you daddy?'

There was a slam and they both jumped. Lily entered the living room looking tired.

'I know you're my mummy'

Lily looked at James in shock, 'you told him? He's not going to want to go back now!'

Harry frowned. 'Oh honey I didn't mean it like that,' Lily sat down next to the pair. 'I love you very much. Why don't you go out into the hall, I just need to speak to James.'

Lily stared into James eyes, she had a feeling he wanted to say _'we could just keep him'_. 'We can't, we just can't' she whispered her voice catching.

'Lily what's wrong with you? You loved having Harry around when we were at Hogwarts and now you don't even want to be around him. You just decided you were going to headquarters and abandoned him.'

Lily's eyes flared angrily, 'I did _not_ abandon him, he has been with you. I—I've just been scared. Scared that if we get too close to him it will be harder for all of us. Harry isn't going to have us when he's older and I can't help thinking that it was cruel of me to make him come to us again. He doesn't belong in this time James, he has to go back and its going to hurt—' Lily's voice cracked, James put his arm round her.

'Look, I know what you mean. He is going to have to go back, it was selfish of us to tell him to come to this time. There is nothing we can do to stop what happens in the future apart from being very careful. But we should just try to make however long we have with Harry as happy as possible because we're never going to get this chance again.'

Lily gave him a watery smile and wiped the tears that had dripped down her cheeks. 'I know lets take him out somewhere and then take him to Albus.'

'You have no idea what it felt like when he called me daddy,' whispered James sadly.

x-x-x-x-x-x-

James sadly rolled out of bed and walked down the hallway to the room next to his own, which he had routinely done for the last two weeks. He pushed the door open with little expectation, but his heart rose when his eyes settled on a small lump nestled in a duvet. He rushed over and sat on the bed.

Harry rubbed his eyes tiredly and rolled over when he felt a hand shaking him to wake up. He looked up in to the tired eyes of his father who was beaming down at him.

'Daddy,' he squealed holding out his arms.

James bent down and scooped Harry out of his bed. 'Your back!' he exclaimed and gave him a big kiss. 'Mummy and daddy have missed you so much, where have you been?'

Harry smiled knowingly, 'To see you of course and I told you and mummy everything you said to... about the lie... that I live with the Dursley people,' a confused expression overcame Harry. 'I don't have to go back to the past again do I?'

'No. Did you not like it?' asked James smoothing Harry's hair back just to check that his forehead was smooth and unmarked.

'It was okay but I prefer it here, you're much nicer.'

James smiled in relief, he and Lily had been patiently waiting for Harry to come back from the past for two terrifying weeks. They had reluctantly sent Harry into the past because they both knew that the old Harry, who they considered to be the boy who had lived with the Dursley's had saved their lives. The experience had warned them that they needed to be extra careful so they had chosen Albus to be their secret keeper and so far they had come to no harm. Harry had never had to live with the Dursley's, but they had recently realised that they would have to send Harry back into the past to ensure they got a warning.

'James?'

'In here'

Lily burst into the room, but halted in shock when she realised who James was holding. Relief flooded through her and she rushed over to the bed where she pulled Harry away from James and onto her lap.

'My Baby's back,' she said clasping him to her.

Harry grinned up at her.

THE END

**A.N.**** Finally I've finished this story after so many years! I am sorry for such long delays between chapters. I am really grateful to those people who have read the story and sent encouragement. Thank you!**


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